Summary:
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a very realistic novel about slavery. She had a vivid, heartfelt and gruesome imagination. Her thoughts and were confirmed in the real life accounts of slavery written by Equiano, Jacob and Douglass.
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a very realistic novel about slavery. She had a vivid, heartfelt and gruesome imagination. Her thoughts and were confirmed in the real life accounts of slavery written by Equiano, Jacob and Douglass. The main point in Stowe's novel was the lack of regard for family unity by the masters and mistresses of the slaves. This is one of the most difficult, and gut wrenching issues to imagine as Equiano, Jacob and Douglass discuss their first hand encounters. Although the slaves are handed such a miserable life their faith in religion is unbelievably strong. Stowe makes several attempts to show how much the slaves relied on their religion. Equiano, Jacob and Douglass tell the reader how important God is in their lives and he is the reason they are able to endure the misery. Lastly, Stowe differs from the other writers because of her ability to illustrate detail. The other writers attempt to shelter the reader.
Motherhood is a part of the family unit that is completely torn apart during the time of slavery. Masters and Mistresses are "emotionless", when dealing with the slave families (Bookrags). Family togetherness and motherhood are two important elements in life, "Slavery is an institution that twists those ideas into something hardly recognizable" (bookrags). Mothers are known to do anything for their children. In all the stories mothers are forced to part with their children or run for their lives to prevent this hellish fate. In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe makes numerous references to the lengths a mother will go to protect and be with her child. Eliza risks everything to be with her son Harry, she leaves behind "every familiar object" (774). When Stowe discusses Eliza's leap across the river, the reader is jumping with her and the only thought is that mother is with child:
."..with one wild cry and flying leap, she vaulted sheer over the turbid current by the shore on to the raft of ice beyond. It was a desperate leap-impossible to anything but madness and despair;... The huge green fragment of ice on which she alighted pitched and creaked as her weight came on it, but she staid there not a moment. With wild cries and desperate energy she leaped to another and still another cake;-stumbling-leaping-slipping-springing upwards again! Her shoes are gone-her stockings cut from her feet-while blood marked every step; but she saw nothing, felt nothing, till dimly, as in a dream, she saw the Ohio side..."(781-782)
This was the strongest message in the story. The bond between mother and child is so tight; a mother will go to any lengths to protect her child. Stowe continues to fill the reader's heart with despair as she discusses Aunt Hagar and her family. Once again we see a family ripped apart as Aunt Hagar is left all alone and her "agony was pitiful to see" (797). Stowe continues to beat the reader into the reality of heartache when she discusses the young slave mother on the boat whose child is sold while she is sleeping. The mother wakes and can not even cry, the breath is knocked out of her when she realizes her baby is gone. The mother, who's heart can not bare the pain "passed quickly by him to the side of the boat, and he heard a splash in the water" (805), commits suicide.
In the Introduction of Harriet Jacobs, Franklin discusses how she contributed her life to abolitionism, and educating "northern white women" about how slave masters "deprive them of the right to make homes for and with their children" (812). Jacobs reiterates Stowe's imaginary accounts by discussing her own grandmother whose "children were divided among her master's children" (814). Again her mistress did not agree with slaves having any rights to their families. In order to stay close to her children Harriet spent years hiding out in her Grandmothers attic. She put herself through complete torture just so she could see her children through a tiny peep hole in the attic. To Jacobs, enduring the conditions, "for weeks I was tormented by hundreds of little red insects, fine as needle's point, that pierced through my skin, and produced and intolerable burning" (827), was worth it if she could watch her children.
Immediately in Frederick Douglass's narrative he discusses his own separation from his mother. Here the reader is given a child's point of view. Douglass confesses he didn't really remember his mother nor did her know her very well. The only time he saw her was in the middle of the night, she would travel over twelve miles, walking, just to see him, after she had worked all day. Again we see the desperation of a mother come out as she tries to keep herself close to her child at all cost (942). Douglass tells us of another family separation he encounters during one of his stays, a master supposedly converted to Christ "holding on upon the mother, and at the same time turning out her helpless child, to starve and die" (953).
In Olaudah Equiano's narrative, the reader is given more emphasis on family instead of motherhood. The children are still separated from the mother, but a very touching sibling story is the focal point. When Equiano was taken from his mother he was taken along with a sibling. The two really clung to each other, literally, for all emotional support and really counted on the fact that they were together, to get them through this horrible situation. ."..and the only comfort we had was in being in one another's arms all that night, and bathing each other with our tears"(352). Of course in the end they were separated, and a very ugly picture is once again painted. Slave owners were heartless people with no regard to human life, human intimacy or family togetherness.
As mentioned earlier, religion played a very important part in the life of a slave. Religion was something slave owners could not take from the slaves and therefore the slaves indulged in it. God was their salvation; those who survived slavery give credit to God. When Eliza is jumping the river in Uncle Tom's Cabin, she makes many references to God: "I did. God helping me, I crossed the ice...", "The Lord helped me; nobody knows how much the Lord can help 'em, till they try..." (787). Jacobs makes reference to the bible when she asks God why he allows a slave to have feelings of love only to have them taken away so abruptly (816). Douglass discusses his passion for learning to read and at one point he was learning to read the New Testament (953). Religion was the one piece of their lives they could control; they could do it secretly and could never loose it. The slaves clung to this small piece of constant in their lives.
There was little in Stowe's novel that was not represented in the narratives. Stowe was louder and more detailed in her writings. Some of the narratives seemed to paint a better picture than was really experienced. The slaves had a hard time reliving the horrid lives the lived and did not want to rehash each painful detail.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. "Uncle Tom's Cabin: or, Life among the Lowly." Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter, 6th ed. New York: Norton, 2003. 774-806
Franklin, Wayne. "Harriet Jacobs 1813-1897." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter, 6th ed. New York: Norton, 2003. 812-813.
Jacobs, Harriet. "Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl." Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter, 6th ed. New York: Norton, 2003. 813-834.
Douglass, Frederick. "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and American Slave, Written by Himself." Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter, 6th ed. New York: Norton, 2003. 942-973.
Equiano, Olaudah. "From the Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African, Written by Himself." Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter, 6th ed. New York: Norton, 2003. 351-361.
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