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Rating: "If Harriet Beecher Stowe had never existed, there might not have been the Civil War," said U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, the architect of the abolition of slavery (abolition, it must be said, was initially only formal). "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is one of those few books that truly changed the world, and it can be said without hesitation. It changed the world because it changed the United States of America, which at that very period was on the path to becoming the world leader. Upon the novel's release, strong controversies arose in all the states of the federation around the issue of slavery. The author fell victim to journalistic campaigns aimed at discrediting her and her work, and even faced outright acts of intimidation, the most sensational of which was the postal delivery of a severed ear from a black slave.
The novel is extremely straightforward, simple, at times simplistic, occasionally suffering from sentimentality and subject to distortions (which would occur over the following years) that would denature its content. But the importance of the themes dealt with and the caused effects are enough to make up for these formal shortcomings. But what is this book about? It talks about the adventures of some black slaves from Kentucky sold by their master for economic reasons. Eliza sees her little son sold off and decides to flee during the night to take him to safety in Canada (a land of freedom and opportunity, exactly what the United States should be), where she is to reunite with her husband.
Old Uncle Tom, on the other hand, though he does not blame Eliza's choice, decides to submit to the decision, albeit unwillingly, of his master to whom he is very attached. Thus begins a journey south where he finds himself first a servant to a kind and compassionate family, and then a slave on the plantation of a cruel white man, Simon Legree, a man always ready with a whip. Uncle Tom accepts every event, every unforeseen circumstance, every situation in his life with unshakeable faith in God: indeed, he is a devout Christian, and page by page, he takes on an increasingly sacred, even divine connotation. His moral stature grows and grows until a comparison with the figure of Jesus himself becomes possible. This is what "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is about, this, and of course much more: about the thousand facets of white/black relationships, about love, about hope, and about sacrifice. That the expression "Uncle Tom" has over time come to signify the servile, compliant, and non-rebellious black is another story, the result of those distortions I mentioned earlier, which rendered the novel's characters flat stereotypes.
What is important is what Harriet Beecher Stowe describes to us: a stalemate, an illness that must be cured at all costs. It will be done, with cannons and swords, through the American Civil War. Only a first step, undoubtedly, when considering how much further there was to go, and how much further there still is before us. But it was 1852, and that first step had to be taken. Americans found themselves confronted with all the horrors of slavery, and how did they react? More than a million copies sold in a year and a half, an astounding success. The United States, and the world, had opened their eyes and were evidently ready to face the problem.
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