A different review.
A conservative atheist praises “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and glorifies that devout christian lady Harriet Beecher-Stowe.
That rather long review:
Uncle Tom: his backbone of steel
Many years ago I read this book on my e-reader. The danger of burning in on the screen of such an older Kindle is exactly zero, so when it goes into sleep mode, the thing actually displays an image: usually a portrait of a very, very famous author. Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of three or four women whose portrait then appeared. And rightly so.
Even among people who do not know the book, most of those who ever heard about it do know that the book is about the position of black slaves in the US.
Very special about the book is that when slaves are speaking, Beecher Stowe uses ‘slave dialect’.
Then you get this: ‘ “The Lord will pervide,” said Sam, rolling up his eyes piously.
“As I’ve been a sayin’, dis yer ‘s a providence and no mistake, as Missis has allers been a instructin’ on us. Thar’s allers instruments ris up to do de Lord’s will.” (‘allers’ apparently stands for ‘always’).
The words of many whites are also rendered in ‘dialect’: “S’pose not; you Kentucky folks spile your niggers.” That ‘spile’ stands for ‘spoil’: you can’t even find out with the help of dictionaries.
You also have to be able to cope with the fact that the author regularly steps out of the story and starts talking about how the events or statements written just before, may have come across to the readers. At one point, she even focuses on the very people who are her readers: mothers, residents of the southern states!
And furthermore, the story becomes too sentimental for me in a few places: especially when it comes to the little white girl Eva, who turns out to be some kind of angel. I wonder if this 6-year-old was the model for that remarkable concept of ‘new age children’?
But please note: I am talking about the story, the author herself was not at all sentimental, rather ruthlessly analytical.
I will come back to that later.
Finally, atheist readers may have difficulty with Stowe’s omnipresent religiousness. To be honest, for me it works in the opposite direction. As an incorrigible atheist, this book written by perhaps the most brilliant writer of the 19th century, gives me a greater appreciation of the historical role of Christianity. This is mainly due to the fact that, although she is deeply religious, she is by no means a defender of everyone who identifies as Christian. On page 160, for example, she writes: “George stood with clenched hands and glowing eyes, and looking as any other man might look, whose wife was to be sold at auction, and son sent to a trader, all under the shelter of a Christian nation’s laws.“
And then I almost automatically arrive at her astonishingly topical, say, 21st century way of writing. I give three quotes, I have to restrain myself not to include more.
“The trader, who, considering his advantages, was almost as humane as some of our politicians, seemed to feel called upon to administer such consolation as the case admitted of.”
And this one: “‘Don’t, eh?’ said the other, easily, and stowing away the morsel in his own mouth, in order to keep up the supply of tobacco-juice, for the general benefit of society.” Wonderful. I would like to call it ‘Tongue in cheek’.
And this is the best one in my opinion, in the sense of pure 21st century: “…and then honest John turned his face up the creek, and sat quietly down on a snug, retired farm, to enjoy his conscience and his reflections.“
Nowadays sometimes the term ‘political correct’ or ‘woke‘ is used to describe people with that attitude, but this is so much more beautiful.
It is reported that upon being introduced to Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862, Abraham Lincoln fondly commented she was “..the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.“
Whether this story is true or not is of little consequence: I can think of no other novel that has had a greater and more direct impact on human history than ‘The Cabin’.
What Stowe writes about herself in the third person in the epilogue is curious: “For many years of her life, the author avoided all reading upon or allusion to the subject of slavery, considering it too painful to be inquired into, and one into which advancing light and civilization would surely live down.“
It is clear that at some point she very explicitly decided to write a novel that would have social influence.
Exactly the same applies to the book ‘Lajja’ (Bengali for ‘Shame’) by Taslima Nasrin and Max Havelaar by Eduard Douwes Dekker, one of the most famous books in the Dutch language. In terms of quality, however, ‘The Cabin’ towers far above Nasrin’s book (also written as Nasreen) and in terms of integrity and effect it towers far above Dekker’s (with its personal frustration and self-righteousness).
Even now – especially, but not exclusively, in the US – “Uncle Tom” is still exceptionally topical: this qualification is used as a swear word. One of the most famous black actors, Denzel Washington, came out in support of Donald Trump. As far as I know, the insult has not been used against him, but it is used against many others.
As far as the book reviewed here is concerned, it is very important to realise that in the book Stowe proposes to make ‘The’ – or rather, ‘A’ – Uncle Tom’s hut a memorial: “Let it be a memorial to put you all in mind to follow in his steps, and be honest and faithful and Christian as he was“. (Page 371). The title of my review actually refers to the same thing. Uncle Tom is the good-natured one.
He believes in the good, or at least in the chance for improvement for every sinner, but when it really comes down to it, he is intransigent himself. And those around him realise this: “But he will give up,-course, he will; don’t I know what niggers is? He’ll beg like a dog, this morning.” “He won’t, Simon; you don’t know this kind. You may kill him by inches,-you won’t get the first word of confession out of him.“”
Another reason why I am so enthusiastic about this book is Stowe’s aforementioned, mercilessly analytical approach.
She fully sympathises with the horrific fate of the slaves -that is the thrust of the book as a whole, expressed in hundreds of poignant turns of phrase- but she does not present it as if all slaves were engaged in some heroic struggle against their oppressors. She also writes, all things considered, about slaves who make the best of it. Who have no hope of ending slavery. Terrorised so successfully that they do not revolt. Certainly not organised. In a way, she also writes about forms of “betrayal”. The kind of betrayal that has occurred a great deal in history. Think of camp elders in Nazi concentration camps. Think of women who genitally mutilate girls, or who consent to this.
I did not like some passages in the book. When she apparently thinks she should ‘compensate’ for her low opinion of the slaves by -partly misplaced- praise. The ‘noble savages’ sentiment, so to speak.
In my opinion, she more than makes up for that on page 63:
“… Sam was in no wise disheartened by this rebuke, though he assumed an air of doleful gravity, and stood with the corners of his mouth lowered in most penitential style. “Mas’r quite right,-quite; it was ugly on me,-there’s no disputin’ that ar; and of course Mas’r and Missis wouldn’t encourage no such works. I’m sensible of dat ar; but a poor nigger like me ‘s ‘mazin’ tempted to act ugly sometimes, when fellers will cut up such shines as dat ar Mas’r Haley; he an’t no gen’l’man no way; anybody’s been raised like I’ve been can’t help a seein’ dat ar.“”
Sam is doing a ‘good soldier Swejk’ here. The book on that genius-dumb man, by Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek, was only published in 1923
I conclude with an example of Beecher’s deadly, 21st century subtlety: how she refers to Sam as master and politician.
“Madam is far too good for us,” said Sam, taking a bow and leaving. It will be obvious, as has been suggested before, that Master Sam possessed an innate talent that could undoubtedly have made him an eminence in political life, a talent for making capital out of anything that turned up..“
PS: The book has been filmed nine times. The TV version (1987) can be watched in its entirety via YouTube.
PPS: I published this review in Dutch first on the review-site ‘Hebban’. Under pseudonym. The same I used for my ‘faction novel’ “Alexandra’s reis”: M.Terveel. (In Dutch, available in the webshop)
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