Re-Thinking Uncle Tom by W. B. Allen
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Re-Thinking Uncle Tom: Wrong Turns in Black History
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by
W. B. Allen
Michigan State University
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(Do not copy or cite without permission)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin never meant to create an “Uncle Tom.” The late 20
th
century
development that saw the name, Uncle Tom, become an epithet is one of the most
harmful historical developments of that era. For it closed almost an entire country to the
valuable example that could otherwise have remained an object of emulation suited to
boosting citizens through the enormous trials associated with racial reconciliation. For
that reason alone, it is timely and apt to re-think Uncle Tom.
The Literary Question
First, let’s take a general view of the subject. Nietzsche helps here, for he charged
Stowe with a grievous error:
In La Rochefoucauld we find consciousness of the true motive springs of the
mind—and a view of these motive springs that is darkened by Christianity. The
French revolution as the continuation of Christianity. Rousseau is the seducer: he
unfetters woman who is henceforth represented in an ever more interesting
manner—as suffering. Then the slaves and Mrs. Beecher-Stowe… (even to
develop sympathy for the genius one no longer knows any other way for the past
five hundred years than to represent him as the bearer of great suffering!) Next
comes the curse on voluptuousness (Baudelaire and Schopenhauer); the most
decided conviction that the lust to rule is the greatest vice; the perfect certainty
that morality and disinterestedness are identical concepts and that the ‘happiness
of all’ is a goal worth striving for (i.e., the kingdom of heaven of Christ).
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Never was more profound appreciation of the significance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
than Nietzsche’s. He surmised correctly that the genesis or significance of the novel lay
in the creation of the human model of surpassing excellence as a democratic standard.
But we should be mindful of the immediate circumstances of the novel’s appearance.
This is perhaps more important for Americans than any other human beings, since
Americans, as it seems, have only recently regarded the work as an example of profound
interpretation.
We know what immediately prior generations long thought: The memory of
Uncle Tom has not fared well. But what counts—perhaps even to Stowe—is the fact that
Uncle Tom’s own generation of Americans, though granting him much indeed, granted
him less than he deserved. There were numerous examples of intelligent people taking
the work seriously. But, with one significant quasi-exception, they were all Europeans.
Heinrich Heine, George Eliot, George Sand. All hailed the work as immensely
significant, as did countless lesser-known publicists. Stowe, herself, was even moved to
note in 1856, that the French, for example, seemed far more adept at penetrating her
subtle shades of meaning. But, giving due credit to her judgment and feelings, we may
nonetheless argue that what occurred was fitting.
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