Question

What law prompted Stowe to write this book? What was she trying to accomplish with this novel? What does Stowe mean when she writes, "And does not the slave system, by denying the slave all legal right of testimony, make every individual owner an irresponsible despot?" What is Stowe saying about what slave owners become after practicing and participating in the institution of slavery? Who does Stowe blame, the South, the North, or both? What is her reasoning behind this? How does Stowe use Christianity to support her arguments against slavery? Is it a persuasive argument? Explain the final paragraph of Stowe’s chapter in your own words. What does it mean? How do you think Harriet Beecher Stowe’s background as an advocate for women’s rights, and a daughter of church leaders, influence her argument or claims?

Answer 1

Answer:

The question is centered around the novel "Uncle's Tom Cabin" written by Harriet Beecher Stowe,

Explanation:

The Fugitive Slave Act  of 1850 was the motivation behind the writing of the novel.

The author means that slave-owners become essentially a despot, without Christian love. Thus, for Stowe slave-owners were in essence evil-beings without compassion and ethics. Thus, the blame of slavery was in the South, in the plantations owners, her reasoning being the beforementioned lack of Christian love.  

Therefore Stowe uses Christianity as a way to portrait the misery of slavery but also as a way to give a way to challenge it. For Stowe, her background as the daughter of church leaders heavily influenced her view, influencing her view and her arguments, based on the Christian doctrine, against slavery. Basically, that slavery would end only through a purge, a necessary purge through Christian love and compassion, basicaly of an atonement by the American society.