NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
... the varying degrees of evil as depicted in Uncle Toms Cabin. Not only did Harriet Beecher Stowe have inaccuracies in the public perception of traders, but also she also over exaggerated the evil in traders. For example, she has made Haley, the one trader that we have substantial contact with in the play a very bad trader. He as well as the auctioneers in the last part of the book, are both seen as the absolute bottom of the industry.
Haley is a man close to the worst type of negro-trader in real life, but in the book there are implications that there are others who were even worse than he. In one description of Haley in the book Stowe says that, "The trader had arrived at that stage of Christianity and political perfection which has been recommended by some preachers and politicians of the north, lately in which he had completely overcome every humane weakness and prejudice... The wild look of anguish and utter despair that the woman cast on him might have disturbed one less practiced; but he was used to it. He had seen the same look hundreds of times... So the trader only regarded the mortal anguish... as necessary incidents of the trade... " (239).
By picking the worst case scenario of what a trader can be like Stowe makes it seem common practice. Haley regularly takes children that do tricks, or light skinned pretty girls for male owners. She makes Haley out to be one of the most inhumane characters in the book. Stowe also depicts an inhumane and worst-case scenario auctioneer later in the book when Tom is to be sold to the southern plantation. Tom was just sent to the slave warehouse after St. Clares death.
Once there he meets Emmeline and her mother Susan. Emmeline has gorgeous curly hair, but Susan combs it out flat, in hope that she will look less attractive and not be noticed by men who are buying women for their pleasure. Right before they go to the block the seller makes Emmeline go back and curl her hair so that men will notice her more. He said that it might bring an extra $ 100. In another part of the book we see the trader from the riverboat. He has an old woman and her son to sell.
The woman is frantic in the thought of losing her son and tells the trader, "Keep close to yer mammy, Albert, -- close, -- dey " ll put us up together, " she said. "O, mammy, I'm fear they won't, " said the boy. (127). She eventually got split up from her son after begging and pleading with the plantation owner that bought her son Albert. The woman even told the owner she would die if she wasnt able to go with her son. The traders, auctioneers and owners are the worst-case example in the south of what type of instances were involved in the industry. In a southern plantation owners guide to slave treatment one owner stated that families are sometimes broken up from these causes, and the slaves sold under the hammer. The separation of family ties, which is cause for so much regret often makes more of a nuisance for masters...
disenchanted slaves are often traced to these sources for their futilely (Smith 1). Many times, like in this passage masters and facilitators of the slave trade tried to keep families together so that the slaves would work harder and be less inclined to run away. Every slave in Uncle Toms Cabin has been separated from some part of his or her family, and furthermore she depicts several scenes where the trader physically separated a mother and child through force. In one instance Stowe uses her narrative voice in the novel to explain how the slave auction was run, she said that Then you shall be courteously entreated to call and examine, and shall find an abundance of husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, and young children, to be "sold separately, or in lots to suit the convenience of the purchaser; " and that soul immortal, once bought with blood and anguish by the Son of God, when the earth shook, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, can be sold, leased, mortgaged, exchanged for groceries or dry goods, to suit the phases of trade, or the fancy of the purchaser. (322). The fact is this was more detrimental to their business than helpful; it took away a reason for living from most of the slaves. Many times they tried to keep families together because it boosted morale among slaves, they were less likely to try to escape if they had a family to keep them there.
It is true though that many families were separated; an estimated 73 % of slave families in Georgia had at least one member of their family taken away (Taylor 1). Stowe depicts that every slave was separated and that every trader tried to separate him or her, this is simply not the case. At the time there were many horrible things going on in the industry, but not all of these were common practice, often times there were worse Haley's in the large cities in the northern factories than on the Mississippi river. There were more victims to the greed, the power, the depravity of the coarse-minded and merciless in the united transactions of ordinary life, and in the general routine of commercial or manufacturing oppression. (Harrison 1). Stowe's depiction of traders, auctioneers and masters of slaves is sometimes over the top and using worst-case examples of the treatment of families. One of the inaccuracies that Stowe uses in Uncle Toms Cabin is why exactly a slave was sold.
First of all she has tom having three different owners through out the course of the book. In one statistic it was shown that the average slave had 1 owner in their life, with less than 40 % of the slave population having three or more masters in the course of their life (Taylor 1). One or more of the following factors dictated the sale of a servant: When such a sale was necessary to settle an estate. Much like that of St.
Clares after he died, he didnt put anything in his will about them so Marie sold them to the warehouse. When a slaves delinquent behavior necessitated his or her disposal they were also sold. When the owner was in dire need of money for the payment of debt, etc. This is seen with Mr.
Shelby at the beginning of the book. He owes a large sum of money to Haley so he is forced to sell Henry and Tom. Also when a captured fugitive slave is unclaimed for one year, or simple desire of material gain. Stowe had depicted two in one lifetime of a slave, this is an over exaggeration of the circumstances of trade (Levy 67). It wasnt a delicate issue, and owners didnt trade their slaves unless absolutely necessary. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a stunning portrayal of slavery at the time she wrote it, and in doing so included the worst stories she could find.
Although she conveys many truths about certain aspects of the industry she also over-exaggerates what slave trading was like. She made traders out to be far more inhumane then many were. She also wrote about the importance of traders in the economy, although they had very little. Even though exaggerated the grim portrayals of slavery helped to fan support across the nation for abolitionism. So although she exaggerated her facts, Stowe's rendition of slavery accomplished exactly what she had planned for it to do.
And thankfully to, without this book we might not have awoken to the evils that the system promoted. Work Cited Harrison, Lower H. The Antislavery Movement in the deep south UNC at Chapel Hill Libraries Online. 1978. University of North Carolina 5 Jan 2001 < web >> Levy, Steven. Slavery in Kentucky. Lancaster Pennsylvania: New Printing Company, Negro universities Press 4 - 6 McDougle, Ivan E.
Sketches of America. Black Studies at Howard University. 1994. 4 Jan 2001. < web >> Smith, William Andrew. Lectures on Philosophy and Practice of Slavery, as Exhibited in the Institution of Domestic Slavery in the United States: with the Duties of Masters to Slaves: Electronic Edition. UNC at Chapel Hill Libraries Online. 1802 - 1870.
University of North Carolina 5 Jan 2001 < web >>. Stowe, Harriet Beecher. The Key to Uncle Toms Cabin. Boston, 1853; reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1969: 279 Taylor, Jeremiah.
Sold Down the River Genealogy Magazine Online. 13 Nov 1998. Genealogy Magazine. Dec. 2000 < web >>.
Free research essays on topics related to: worst case, common practice, chapel hill, uncle toms cabin, harriet beecher stowe
Research essay sample on Uncle Tom Cabin The Slave Trade
