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Re-Thinking Uncle Tom: Wrong Turns in Black History
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Re-Thinking Uncle Tom by W. B. Allen
23
Revisited: The Bible, the Romantic Imagination, and the Sympathies of Christ." Interpretation 27: 67-85, p.82.] Lewis likens Tom to “the head servant, a ‘patriarch in religious matters,’ Christian teacher, friend towomen, the downtrodden, and oppressed in the model of Christ.” [Lewis, G. S. (1992). Message,Messenger, and Response: Puritan Forms and Cultural Reformation in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "UncleTom's Cabin", Oklahoma State University, p. 205.]
30
A point Shipp cogently described in his dissertation.
31
What is a matter of weeks in George Harris’ case, however, is a matter of years for Uncle Tom!
32
The conversation with Mr. Wilson.
33
Stowe’s deliberate use of the conventions of melodrama and her defense of the genre is discussed in
Book Three of the longer work of which this is a précis. Here, however, it is worth noting comments byBrooks that in melodrama “The villain is simply the conveyer of evil, he is inhabited by evil” and “Theworld according to melodrama is built on an irreducible manichaeism, the conflict of good and evil asopposites and not subject to compromise.” [Brooks, P. (1976). The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac,Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of Excess. New Haven, Yale University Press, p. 33, 36.]
34
Strout finds that Uncle Tom’s Cabin “was in large part a protest against the Calvinist doctrine of human
inability to merit salvation.” Strout, C. (1968). "Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Portent of the Millennium." TheYale Review n.s. 57: 375-385, p. 379-80.] To Donovan Stowe “seems to be moving away from thearbitrariness of orthodox Calvinism and toward a religion in which people can choose the path ofsalvation…by electing a change of heart within themselves…” [Donovan, J. (1991). Uncle Tom's Cabin:Evil, Affliction, and Redemptive Love. Boston, Twayne Publishers, p. 46.]
35
As also occurs in the novel’s climactic account of humanism. Calvin Stowe launched an early attack
upon Hegelian philosophy in his article, “The Four Gospels as We Now Have Them in the New Testamentand the Hegelian Assaults on Them,” published in Bibliotheca sacra in 1851. He later incorporated muchof that argument into his Origin and History of the Books of the Bible. [Stowe, C. E. (1851). "The FourGospels as We Now Have Them in the New Testament and the Hegelian Assaults on Them." Bibliothecasacra 8: 503-529.] [Stowe, C. E. (1867). Origin and History of the Books of the Bible. Hartford, CT,Hartford Publishing Co.]
36
Aeneid, iii, 658.
37
Chapter xxxii. On the applicability of “the Hegelian philosophy” in this context, the following
suggestive passage is relevant:Spirit in this case, therefore, constructs not merely one world, but a twofold world, divided and self-opposed. The world of the ethical spirit is its own proper present; and hence every power it possesses isfound in this unity of the present, and, so far as each separates itself from the other, each is still inequilibrium with the whole. Nothing has the significance of a negative of self-consciousness; even the spiritof the departed is in the blood of his relative, is present in the self of the family, and the universal power ofgovernment is the will, the self of the nation. . . what is present means merely objective actuality, which hasits consciousness in the beyond; each single moment, as an essential entity, receives this, and therebyactuality, from another, and so far as it is actual, its essential being is something other than its ownactuality. Nothing has a spirit self established and indwelling within it; rather, each is outside itself in whatis alien to it. [Hegel, G. W. F. (1931). The Phenomenology of Mind. New York, The MacMillan Co, p. 510-11.]
38
In Lewis’ analysis “Star is the biblical morning star, Christ, and is used interchangeably for Eva America,
and in allusions to Tom. Eva is mythic, allegorical, noble, and if America can rid itself of slavery, it can belike the morning star in God’s kingdom, as she is, restored to its innocence, and as Tom is when morningstar (Christ) looks down on man of sin, purified by his sacrifice.” [Lewis, G. S. (1992). Message,Messenger, and Response: Puritan Forms and Cultural Reformation in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "UncleTom's Cabin", Oklahoma State University, p. 247.]
39
UTC, p. 466, and note.
40
She substituted her line for the original first line in William Cullen Bryant’s “Deem not that they are
blest alone,” fifth stanza.
41
Compare p. 457, UTC
42
I Corinthians, 15:57. Cf., verses 55, 56, & 58.
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Re-Thinking Uncle Tom by W. B. Allen
23
Revisited: The Bible, the Romantic Imagination, and the Sympathies of Christ." Interpretation 27: 67-85, p.
82.] Lewis likens Tom to “the head servant, a ‘patriarch in religious matters,’ Christian teacher, friend to
women, the downtrodden, and oppressed in the model of Christ.” [Lewis, G. S. (1992). Message,
Messenger, and Response: Puritan Forms and Cultural Reformation in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle
Tom's Cabin", Oklahoma State University, p. 205.]
30
A point Shipp cogently described in his dissertation.
31
What is a matter of weeks in George Harris’ case, however, is a matter of years for Uncle Tom!
32
The conversation with Mr. Wilson.
33
Stowe’s deliberate use of the conventions of melodrama and her defense of the genre is discussed in
Book Three of the longer work of which this is a précis. Here, however, it is worth noting comments by
Brooks that in melodrama “The villain is simply the conveyer of evil, he is inhabited by evil” and “The
world according to melodrama is built on an irreducible manichaeism, the conflict of good and evil as
opposites and not subject to compromise.” [Brooks, P. (1976). The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac,
Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of Excess. New Haven, Yale University Press, p. 33, 36.]
34
Strout finds that Uncle Tom’s Cabin “was in large part a protest against the Calvinist doctrine of human
inability to merit salvation.” Strout, C. (1968). "Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Portent of the Millennium." The
Yale Review n.s. 57: 375-385, p. 379-80.] To Donovan Stowe “seems to be moving away from the
arbitrariness of orthodox Calvinism and toward a religion in which people can choose the path of
salvation…by electing a change of heart within themselves…” [Donovan, J. (1991). Uncle Tom's Cabin:
Evil, Affliction, and Redemptive Love. Boston, Twayne Publishers, p. 46.]
35
As also occurs in the novel’s climactic account of humanism. Calvin Stowe launched an early attack
upon Hegelian philosophy in his article, “The Four Gospels as We Now Have Them in the New Testament
and the Hegelian Assaults on Them,” published in Bibliotheca sacra in 1851. He later incorporated much
of that argument into his Origin and History of the Books of the Bible. [Stowe, C. E. (1851). "The Four
Gospels as We Now Have Them in the New Testament and the Hegelian Assaults on Them." Bibliotheca
sacra 8: 503-529.] [Stowe, C. E. (1867). Origin and History of the Books of the Bible. Hartford, CT,
Hartford Publishing Co.]
36
Aeneid, iii, 658.
37
Chapter xxxii. On the applicability of “the Hegelian philosophy” in this context, the following
suggestive passage is relevant:
Spirit in this case, therefore, constructs not merely one world, but a twofold world, divided and self-
opposed. The world of the ethical spirit is its own proper present; and hence every power it possesses is
found in this unity of the present, and, so far as each separates itself from the other, each is still in
equilibrium with the whole. Nothing has the significance of a negative of self-consciousness; even the spirit
of the departed is in the blood of his relative, is present in the self of the family, and the universal power of
government is the will, the self of the nation. . . what is present means merely objective actuality, which has
its consciousness in the beyond; each single moment, as an essential entity, receives this, and thereby
actuality, from another, and so far as it is actual, its essential being is something other than its own
actuality. Nothing has a spirit self established and indwelling within it; rather, each is outside itself in what
is alien to it. [Hegel, G. W. F. (1931). The Phenomenology of Mind. New York, The MacMillan Co, p. 510-
11.]
38
In Lewis’ analysis “Star is the biblical morning star, Christ, and is used interchangeably for Eva America,
and in allusions to Tom. Eva is mythic, allegorical, noble, and if America can rid itself of slavery, it can be
like the morning star in God’s kingdom, as she is, restored to its innocence, and as Tom is when morning
star (Christ) looks down on man of sin, purified by his sacrifice.” [Lewis, G. S. (1992). Message,
Messenger, and Response: Puritan Forms and Cultural Reformation in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle
Tom's Cabin", Oklahoma State University, p. 247.]
39
UTC, p. 466, and note.
40
She substituted her line for the original first line in William Cullen Bryant’s “Deem not that they are
blest alone,” fifth stanza.
41
Compare p. 457, UTC
42
I Corinthians, 15:57. Cf., verses 55, 56, & 58.
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