Question 1

Now that Uncle Tom's Cabin has been published on a mass scale and people have a better picture of what the book is about, why today is being called an "Uncle Tom" a bad thing? I read the book this summer, and, to be honest, he seems to be a hero who stands for what he believes, no matter the cost.

Accepted Answer

I think it became a bad thing because of Uncle Tom's submissiveness, preferring prayer and ultimately dying, rather than fighting back.

Question 2

So basically the book started a war?

Accepted Answer

It was not the sole cause of the civil war, but yes it did contribute to the start of the war.

Question 3

Can Karl Marx's Manifesto of the Communist Party be counted as a document that started WWII?

Accepted Answer

The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848 and had more to do with the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the start of the Soviet Union than it did with World War II.  The Nazi Party in Germany destroyed both democracy and communism in Germany as it rose to power.  It could be argued that the Nazi's would not have had the successes they had without communists in Germany to fight against, but the racism, nationalism, and fascism that fueled German expansion and led to World War II were not part of the Manifesto.

Question 4

Does "Gone With the Wind" count as an anti-Tom novel?

Accepted Answer

Possibly yes, there is a discussion in the book where Scarlett scoffs at a Yankee woman for thinking that all slave owners were as cruel as Simon Legree from Uncle Tom's Cabin. However, Mrs. Stowe herself acknowledges that is not the case with characters such as the Shelbys and Augustine St. Clare.

If you mean in a larger sense is _Gone With the Wind_ a racist or pro-slavery novel, that is another and much more complicated question.

_Gone With the Wind_ has been a rather hot topic since the film was removed and then returned to HBO a few years ago with a disclaimer addressing its racism, and I acknowledge that there are many problems with the book. However, I don't believe it deserves to be thrown completely into the category of "our narrow-minded past." It's also an insightful novel showing how a Southerner would have felt during and after the Civil War.

Certainly, its depiction of slavery is severely flawed, though perhaps not as much as it is made out to be, given that the protagonist is a self-absorbed Southern belle. Since we see the world though Scarlett's racist-ingrained perspective alone, she likely would not notice (or care to notice) many of the injustices against black people, nor would they be very inclined to tell her. That is definitely not to say that the novel is correct in throwing racial slurs, encouraging stereotypes, and glorifying slavery. But, with a few well-edited scenes in which Scarlett is forced to confront the true face of slavery, this could have gone from, in some ways, a painfully dated book to an enduring classic.

Other aspects of the book, however, are accurate and insightful to the period, such as the hypocrisy of the Northerners regarding the freed slaves and the loss of Southern dignity and self-respect during the Reconstruction. There is a scene in which Scarlett, returning to her ruined neighborhood in which most of the boys she'd grown up with are maimed or dead, cries, "Oh, the Yankees could have all the darkies if only we could have our boys back." And yes, that is, unfortunately, the racist-ingrained terminology of the book, but it's the only terminology Scarlett, or most Southerners at the time, would have known. The novel displays the heart-wrenching devastation of the South during and after the Civil War. Their entire way of life was lost-- for the better, maybe, but there were also honorable parts, left behind forever.

_Gone With the Wind_ is a beneficial read if you recognize its perspective of a narrow-minded, selfish Southern belle, in the context of the knowledge of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ and one of the most instructive novels to the journey _Up from Slavery_ by Booker T. Washington. 
I'm not saying you'll enjoy it; I'm not saying you'll agree with it, but it is an insightful novel to how a Southerner would have perceived the Civil War and the upheaval of Reconstruction that followed in its wake.

Question 5

I don't really understand how the book is relevant to starting a war.

Accepted Answer

The book was a piece of emotional manipulation, stirring many people to oppose white racism in the south (though they still practiced it in the north) and support efforts to end slavery in the south.

Question 6

" I'm trying to think of another book that started a war..."
my brother in Christ... the bible.
or the Quran.

Accepted Answer

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

Question 7

When do you fact check your presenters? Truth is over 90 percent of white Americans in 1850 were literate.

Accepted Answer

And, the people of color in 1850?  They were Americans, too, just like the white people.

Question 8

Now that Uncle Tom's Cabin has been published on a mass scale and people have a better picture of what the book is about.

Accepted Answer

The publication on a mass scale probably happened very near to the time of the book's composition. People had a good picture of what the book was about pretty soon after it hit the shelves.

Question 9

What was the significance of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Accepted Answer

Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, as you probably know. It was a revolutionary book because so many people in the North read it, and it portrayed the reality of slavery.  The book probably also made more people increasingly aware of the wrongs of slavery and drew attention to the abolitionists.

Question 10

You don'the mention that Lincoln was a Republican and frame this as as "sectional issue" rather than a conservative vs liberal issue.  It seems you are protecting Democrats from their unfavorable history.  Why?

Accepted Answer

I think it is more of a sectional issue than a conservative vs. liberal issue. Let me tell you why: Modern day liberalism emerged in the 1930s and the modern day conservative movement traces its history back to about 1960, so those concepts aren't relevant to the Civil War. Moreover, the idea of a Republican conservative party vs. a Democratic liberal party is also an invention of the 1960s. Before then, both the Republican party and the Democratic party had liberal and conservative wings. (Note that in the 1950s Southern Democrats were in favor of Jim Crow and states' rights for example, while Northern Democrats by and large favored civil rights and New Deal legislation). So in the election of 1860, for example, the Democratic party split into two camps, the Northern Democrats, who supported Stephen Douglas and favored keeping the union together, and the Southern Democrats, who supported John C. Breckenridge and favored seceding to protect the institution of slavery. So it was section, more than party, that determined one's stance in the 1850s, and one of the most important takeaways from Uncle Tom's Cabin and the 1850s is that sectionalism rather than political party began to dominate politics, leading to the split between North and South in the Civil War.

Although these videos don't yet have a home on the Khan Academy website, I also encourage you to check out the recent histories of the Democratic and Republican parties that we uploaded onto our YouTube channel in honor of the political conventions, where we go into a lot more detail.

Although these videos don't yet have a home on the Khan Academy website, I also encourage you to check out the recent histories of the Democratic and Republican parties that we uploaded onto our YouTube channel in honor of the political conventions, where we go into a lot more detail.

Course: AP®︎/College US History > Unit 5

Uncle Tom's Cabin - reception and significance

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