Introduction

When Uncle Tom’s Cabin was first published in 1852, no one-least of all its author, Harriet Beecher Stowe-expected the book to become a sensation, but […]

Plot Summary

Following three slaves and their experiences in and out of slavery, Stowe’s novel deals with the effects of slavery on both blacks and whites in […]

Characters

A Adolph Dolph Augustine St. Clare’s personal slave, Adolph, is something of a dandy. He wears his master’s castoff elegant clothing and looks down on […]

Themes

A Human Rights Slavery took many rights away from the enslaved. The loss of the basic right to have an intact family-and especially for parents […]

Construction

A Point of View The third person (“they,” “he,” “she”) omniscient or all-seeing narrative point of view is necessary to Stowe’s novel, as the novel […]

Questions

Research mid-19th-century American views of motherhood and domesticity and compare those views to Stowe’s portrayal of mothers and motherhood. Look at actual 19th-century slave narratives […]

Further Reading

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself, Douglass’s autobiography, was first published in 1845. Douglass tells of his life […]