Inwardly Outward: Quaker Representation in 'Uncle Tom’s Cabin'

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2012
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Haverford College. Department of Religion
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Award
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eng
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In this essay, I identify an interpretation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin which emphasizes the role of Quakerism. This novel, being the top-selling book of the 19th Century, discounting the Bible, introduced Americans to the trials and tribulations of slavery. Bringing the burden of enslaved Americans to the forefront of the American social life, Harriet Beecher Stowe told a fictional story that encompassed many different aspects of slave culture. Focusing on the story of Eliza Harris, a slave mother who pursues freedom in hopes of a better life for her young son, I argue that through her running away, she was able to create her own religious interpretation, as opposed to succumbing to the one forced upon her by her masters. In this process of running away, Eliza encountered a settlement of Quakers in Ohio that helped her safely reach freedom. I argue that Harriet Beecher Stowe depicts these Quakers as the emancipating saviors and beacons of righteousness in Uncle Tom’s Cabin because they bring their “inward” beliefs to the “outward” world. Basing my argument in Quaker history, specifically on a debate between two Quaker dignitaries, Richard Farnsworth and John Perrot, I recognize that these characters depicted by Stowe are fictional representations of the American Society of Friends. Using the Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, as well as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, I acknowledge that Stowe’s creation of the Quaker protagonists, the Halliday family, was derived from real Quaker experiences, stories, and beliefs. This notion is important to understand because I close in arguing that through the Hallidays’ portrayal in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe affords her American readers an example of how they should live their lives. By taking a more active approach to abolitionism, Stowe encourages her readers to let their “inward” beliefs dictate their “outward” interactions.
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