Essay About Uncle Toms Cabin And Fugitive Slave Act

Uncle Toms Cabin
Essay Preview: Uncle Toms Cabin
Report this essay
Uncle Toms Cabin and the Civil War
Uncle Toms Cabin played a big role in starting the only war that was fought entirely on
American soil. There were many factors that led up to the Civil War, but Uncle Toms Cabin turned
the anger caused by the fugitive slave act into moral outrage which was then fueled by cases such as
John Brown and Dredd Scott.
The Fugitive Slave Act was seen by many Northerners as a violation of their personal
freedoms. Why should any Northerner be forced to miss work and leave their family to take a
runaway slave back to their master? Unfortunately they didnt have a choice unless they wanted to
go to jail and/or pay a $1000 fine. Uncle Toms Cabin included a slave family (Eliza, George, and
Harry Harris) that was running away in order to keep their son. This made Northerners mad because
they didnt want to leave their life anyways and to leave it to destroy another family was completely
against their will.
Most Northerners saw slave owners as lazy because they didnt do their own work. With new
ideas about human rights, dignity, and the sanctity of motherhood brought about by the social reforms
caused by cult of domesticity. Harriet Beecher Stowe showed that slaves were people too through
Tom and his role all of the plantations that he worked on. By humanizing slaves many the North saw