"So you're the little lady who started this big war."
-attributed to Abraham Lincoln on his first meeting with Mrs. Stowe
Although I've heard of Harriet Beecher Stowe's well-known opus since I was young, I only recently got around to reading it. Three themes are evident in the book: opposition to slavery, belief in God, the loss of children. Stowe coherently creates characters to preach, teach, argue, and promote her positions throughout the book. She doesn't only speak against the ills of slavery in the South, but uses the characters' dialog to point out the hypocrisy of her own Northern neighbors who oppose slavery but do not want to be friends with blacks. She also criticizes the nascent industrial age and capitalism. Speaking through St. Clare, she writes:
"He [a laborer] is as much at the will of his employer as if he were sold to him.
The slave-owner can whip his refractory slave to death, --the capitalist can
starve him to death. As to family security, it is hard to say which is the worst, ---to
have one's children sold, or see them starve to death at home."
How little things have changed! (A parallel argument is made in
The Jungle.) The same can be said of the working class in America today. The North Critical Edition (pictured above) provides footnotes contributing to an understanding of the context and nearly 200 pages of historical and contemporary criticism. If you haven't read this book, give it a try. Along with Stowe's historical perspective of the mid-19th century, we can also see how present-day society is reflected in the past and examine the injustices of today. Although the story-telling is quite engaging, the conclusion is a bit contrived as plot lines are brought together with substantial coincidence.
