The Sociological Aspect of Uncle Tom’s Cabin

            Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a book by Harriet Beecher Stowe that describes in detail the lives of slaves. It discusses the good masters and the brutal masters, the field slaves and the house servants, and how they were traded. This book opened the eyes of many to what slavery was like.

            Supposedly, Abraham Lincoln greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe around the start of the Civil War by saying “So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” When they read the book, people in the north felt slavery on a more personal level. No longer was it an obscure southern practice that was only speculated about. Northerners became outraged about the cruelty of slavery. Southerners were outraged and said that the book exaggerated slavery. Tension built between the North and the South (http://www.ushistory.org/us/28d.asp).

            Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold 300,000 copies in the north and was even more commonly read in Great Britain; thus giving it a wide fan base (http://www.ushistory.org/us/28d.asp) . Many people during the 1850’s were not very well educated about slavery. Only 10% of southerners actually owned slaves, so slavery was not as prevalent as some people think. Northerners heard word of mouth stories and whatever was written in the newspaper. Uncle Tom’s Cabin has reached generation after generation of people, and is the world’s second most published book after the bible (https://louisville.edu/theatrearts/current-season/past-productions/lincoln_uncle_tom.html). The book was banned in the south because of its power and possibility to incite riots.

             Stowe characterizes both the North and the South in the book. Miss Ophelia is the stereotypical northerner. “She is hard working, harsh yet virtuous, opinionated, and democratic. She is an abolitionist yet prejudiced against blacks.” Augustine St. Clare is the Southerner. He is “wealthy, lazy, and educated. He has too much time on his hands, drinks too much alcohol, and is generally indulgent of his slaves because he recognizes they make his life easier.” Simon Legree, who grew up in the North and moved to the South was the harshest of all the masters (http://www.shmoop.com/uncle-toms-cabin/characterization.html). Eva is the mixed race slave that works in the house and is proper and perfect. Topsy is the slave child who was left to run wild, and now she is a liar and a thief.

            Several criticisms have been discussed about Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  All the slaves eventually end up in Africa, Canada, or heaven, showing that Stowe did not believe that free blacks and whites could share the same territory. Other freed slaves of the time, including Frederick Douglass were trying to fight for an America where blacks and whites were equal. Also, Stowe portrays mulattos and other mixed races as being of a higher class than blacks and offers examples at the end of the book of mulattos who have improved their circumstances, but she does not offer any examples of black success in America. Others criticized her for entering the world of politics which she was not supposed to know anything about because she was a woman. She was also criticized because Tom was killed when he did not reveal the whereabouts of escaped slaves. Does this mean that Stowe wanted slaves to suffer in silence while upholding their Christian values? (http://www.enotes.com/uncle-toms-cabin-reference/uncle-toms-cabin).

            Even though its accuracy is still up for debate and it has many criticisms, Uncle Tom’s Cabin so enraged people with its hard working, Christian character that they began to seek freedom for slaves. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of the most influential books in history.

Emerson evolution vs. creationism

All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.-Ralph Waldo Emerson

           In order to more fully understand this quote, it is important to know some background about Emerson. Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the founders of the transcendentalist movement; this is a concept that emphasizes the importance of nature instead of society. It also values self reliance and civil disobedience if one does not approve of the government (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/transcendentalism/).  For more information about transcendentalism see this video: 

           Emerson studied at Harvard and was a minister. He spoke out against slavery, the annexation of Texas, and the large gap between the upper class and lower class in England. He wrote many philosophical papers, and he was a very engaging speaker, even if people sometimes didn’t understand the intricacies of his ideas (http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/).  Emerson was a unitarian. Unitarians believe that Jesus and God are one and the same; they do not believe in the Divine Trinity. Unitarians encourage their members to discover on their own the specifics of what they belief. It is a very broad religion (http://www-distance.syr.edu/sammaybelieve.html).

            His quote can be applied to the debate over evolution and creationism. Some of the main questions today are: Should creationism also be taught in schools? and Does one disprove the other?

Whether or not there is a god, the belief gives people hope. When a relative dies, we think they’re in a better place. When we have a bad year, we know things will get better because God won’t let anything too bad happen to us. If we get to the end of our lives and there really is no God, then we haven’t lost anything because we would have lived our lives the best we can.  We won’t be disappointed that there’s no God because we’ll just be unconscious in the ground.

            People justify the unknown based on God’s creations: the flowers, oceans, children, Egyptian pyramids, Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon, the planets, and the stars. These are all things that could not have been made by man. Rather, they are things that preceded the skill ability of the people of the time. They believe that these things could not have been made without God. Things that they can’t explain: gravity, death, really sick people that are healed, losing a job, finding a lost child, and winning a war against the odds are explained by the grace of God. These things have no other explanations, so logically what makes the flowers and the stars must have healed the sick people because it is bigger than man. It doesn’t hurt for people to believe in God instead of evolution, even though there is no proof of God.

Was Edgar Allan Poe mentally ill?

Was Edgar Allan Poe mentally unstable or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and if so how did that influence his work?

          Edgar Allan Poe admitted to using opium, but this was a prominent treatment for medical problems at the time. There was no evidence that he was addicted to it (http://edgarallan2002.tripod.com/misc.html).

Poe was, however, a known alcoholic. He lost a couple of jobs because his employers threatened to fire him if he did not stop drinking. Even under this pressure, he still could not give it up (http://edgarallan2002.tripod.com/misc.html). Poe used alcohol to deal with his problems. His wife (also his cousin) popped a blood vessel and was sick with tuberculosis for 5 years before she finally died. After her death, his drinking became even more of a problem (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/eapoe.htm). For more information on Poe's life, see this video:

http://www.biography.com/people/edgar-allan-poe-9443160 

          Poe’s sister Rosalie was insane. Since diseases such as schizophrenia are genetic, it is possible that Poe might have also suffered from the same thing. He married his 13 year old cousin. Since that is abnormal, it could be a sign that something was wrong with Poe. Poe also attempted suicide and wrote about some of his suicidal thoughts in letters. Kay Redfield Jamison, an expert on bipolar disorder, has looked at some of Poe’s letters and speculates that he was bipolar. She says that during mania, people with bipolar disorder are likely to be very creative, so this is where he would have done all his writing. The suicidal thoughts and attempts would have come into play during the depression. Someone asked Poe about his madness and he said, “"Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence -- whether much that is glorious -- whether all that is profound -- does not spring from disease of thought -- from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect” (http://curiosity.discovery.com/topic/perception/mad-genius3.htm). Poe means that if he was mentally ill, it would have added to his creativity. If there was something wrong with Poe, he did not seek treatment because treatment in those times for mental disorders was brutal and experimental, such as cutting holes in the skull to let evil spirits out (http://edgarallan2002.tripod.com/misc.html).

         If Edgar Allan Poe was bipolar or schizophrenic, that would explain some of his stories. Schizophrenics hear voices in their heads and think they’re real like how the narrator in the Tell Tale Heart hears the thumping of a dead man’s heart. His depressed moods would explain why his stories and poems are always so sad. Because there was limited knowledge about mental disorders at this time in history, it would be hard for Poe to have seen inside of his characters’ minds unless he too thought the same way. So, while there is no definitive answer there is a high possibility that Poe was indeed mentally unstable. 

Washington Irving

How do Washington Irving’s writings exemplify Romanticism?

                Romantic writings are not what one initially thinks they are about. They are not about falling in love. Instead, they are about an individual’s journey. One of the first characteristics of Romanticism is a switch from urban to rural settings (http://www.odessa.edu/dept/english/dsmith/rom.lit.char.pdf). This is apparent in Irving’s writings as shown by detailed description of the land such as the Catskill Mountains and the farmland that Katrina lives on.

                Romantic writing is also very supernatural, meaning that some events are magical (http://www.odessa.edu/dept/english/dsmith/rom.lit.char.pdf). For example, Rip Van Winkle sleeps for twenty years, wakes up, and realizes that the colonies are now free from British rule. Ichabod Crane is chased by a headless horseman and never seen again. While these events are not very realistic, they add intrigue to the stories and help further develop the morals.

                The Byronic Hero is also a very prominent character in Romantic writing. The Byronic hero is intellectual, has self respect, is a wanderer or socially isolated because he does not adhere to society’s norms, and can be sensitive and rebellious. This hero is different from the stereotypical hero because the stereotypical hero is prideful, but the Byronic hero is not (http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/sfarris/Files/AP%20Lit%20Files/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Characteristics%20of%20the%20Byronic%20Hero.pdf). Both Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane represent the Byronic hero. Rip Van Winkle at first is not socially isolated, but becomes physically isolated when he falls asleep in the mountains. When he returns, he is socially isolated because his wife has died and he does not recognize any of the townspeople. He is a nice guy and helps out all his neighbors, but is rebellious because he does not do any of the work that his wife wants him to do. Ichabod Crane is a very smart teacher who wanders from one student’s house to the next. He is sensitive and will believe almost anything that people tell him.

                The final characteristic of Romanticism is a focus on the individual rather than the community; other characters are present in the literature but are referenced as to how the main character feels about them through discussion from the third person point of view (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/romanticism-characteristics-of-romanticism.html). Rip Van Winkle is a story about how he slept through the American Revolution, not about how his village dealt with the American Revolution. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow focuses on Ichabod Crane’s incident with the Headless Horseman instead of all of the supposed stories of the townsmen’s encounters with this terror. Washington Irving’s works are true examples of Romantic literature.

 For more information on the Romantic period see this video: 

Frederick Douglass

How did Frederick Douglass help slaves escape?

                Douglass escaped from slavery by saving up money, disguising himself as a sailor, and boarding a ship to go north with fake papers.  However, he was not satisfied with just gaining his own freedom and wanted to help other people too. He gave a couple of speeches and was recognized by William Lloyd Garrison, an abolitionist, and they traveled from town to town together while Douglass gave speeches about his life as a slave. He gave other slaves hope that they too could escape and have a new life. Douglass was an inspiring figure (http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/frederick_douglass.htm).

                After his public speaking earned him fame, Frederick Douglass was invited by President Abraham Lincoln to come to the White House and discuss slavery. While he was there, he encouraged Lincoln to enlist black men for the Union army. He also started his own paper called The North Star which discussed freedom for slaves and circulated among 4,000 people (http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/frederick_douglass.htm). He also had a magazine called “Douglass’s Monthly” (http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/douglass.html).

                Frederick Douglass was also a conductor on the Underground Railroad in Rochester, New York. He hid slaves in his house as they went north from house to house. At one point in time, he had eleven fugitive slaves hiding in his house that he fed, clothed, and saved up money to get them to free territory in Canada. The penalty for harboring a slave could be imprisonment, fining, or even death. Douglass once wrote about helping slaves, “true as a means of destroying slavery, it was like an attempt to bail out the ocean with a teaspoon, but the thought that there was one less slave, and one more freeman, brought to my heart unspeakable joy” (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASunderground.htm).

For more information on the Underground Railroad, see this video:

                His abolitionist duties did not stop there. At first, he supported another abolitionist named John Brown and helped raise money for him. But, when Brown told him that he was planning a raid on Harper’s Ferry, he disapproved and called it a suicide mission.  Douglass stopped helping but eventually had to flee to Canada because people thought he was an instigator of the raid (http://www.winningthevote.org/f-fdouglass.html).

                He also fought for women’s rights, saying that God saw no meaningful difference in race or gender (http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/douglass.html). However, the majority of Douglass’s influence was in writing and giving speeches. He is definitely one of the main reasons that slaves received their freedom. Douglass risked a lot by speaking publicly and working the Underground Railroad because he could have been killed for his outspokenness.

The True Story: Held Captive

Mary Rowlandson was captured by Indians and then later returned to her family. What happened to other people who were captured by Indians? Were they also released or were they killed?

                Many Native American tribes captured women and children as a way to increase their numbers after losing tribe members to warfare or disease. The prisoners were given to families that had lost relatives in the war, and the families could do with the prisoners as they wished by either adopting them into the family or killing them. Unless they had just found out that their family member was dead or they were especially bitter about the killing, most Indians adopted the prisoners (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWscalping.htm).  

                Some Indians, however, had been abused when white people took their land and stole their horses.  These vindictive Indians would kill and scalp some colonists that they happened upon, even if those particular colonists had not hurt those Indians. One member of the Cheyenne tribe had 1,000 scalps that he liked to show off (http://www.academicamerican.com/recongildedage/topics/indian.html).

                Many colonists were scared of being scalped, but in reality, scalping was not as common as people believed. It was not until the French and Indian War that scalping became more common. During the French and Indian War, French military leaders claimed that they would pay money for scalps of the British. Some colonists who had been captured were scalped because the Indians wanted this money (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWscalping.htm).

                Other white people, like Mary Rowlandson were taken captive to be sold back for ransom. Some women were also held for sexual favors. Often, when women were rescued, they were not rescued by members of their own community but by various white communities that happened to be in the area or passing by (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bxi01). More often than not, the Indians treated women kindly and really liked children (http://www.academicamerican.com/recongildedage/topics/indian.html).

                The children who were captured often did not want to return to their previous life and wanted to stay with the Indians because they liked this new life so much. They were assimilated into Indian culture and often married Indian chiefs and warriors when they grew up (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bxi01).

                Many people believed that Indians were savage and brutal, but this was grossly over exaggerated.  Yes, some Indians cold heartedly killed white people that did not deserve it, but as a whole, most Indians treated their captives with kindness or as part of the family. One must remember that the Indians were living peacefully until settlers came and took their land and killed their people instead of taking unclaimed land or asking for help and claiming neutrality.

For more information on Native American stereotypes see this video:

"Common Sense" and propaganda

What kind of impact did “Common Sense” have during it’s time and how does it compare to propaganda throughout history?

               

            “Common Sense” made a huge impact in the starting of the Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress had tried negotiating with the British Parliament to no avail. The colonists were not sure if they wanted to go to war. “Common Sense” is what pushed them over the edge to declare independence and  even told the colonists the proper way to make the changes that they wanted to see. Without the influence of Thomas Paine, America would still just be an extension of England today, and democracy would have never existed(http://www.revolutionarywararchives.org/commonsense.html).

                “Common Sense” is propaganda. Propaganda is a form of advertisement that tries to convince one of something and to take action on it. Characteristics of propaganda include exaggerating the enemy, using strong emotion such as fear, often has a slogan, and often forces a choice between two extreme alternatives (http://www.historians.org/projects/GIRoundtable/propaganda/Propaganda_Intro.htm).

                “Common Sense” uses these devices in the following examples: “Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families” and “Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of Great Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, ‘Come, come, we shall be friends again for all this” (American Literature, 631). In the first quotes Paine uses sensational imagery to claim that the British are savages who have turned on their families and have no conscious. In the second quote Paine claims that one is a fool if he does believe in going to war and tries to embarrass those people.

                Other forms of propaganda have been used throughout history to sway people’s opinions.

Consider this image of a Cold War poster: 

 http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnsb&tbnid=YgqM6Q0ew9IhLM:&imgrefurl=http://www.designer-daily.com/examples-of-american-cold-war-propaganda

                

             The soldiers have evil faces and are strangling a woman as they set the American flag on fire, symbolizing the destruction of our country. This poster is designed to make one fear the Soviets. Believing they are the enemy, one will be more patriotic and support the American precautions and even attacks against the Soviets. It also serves to reject communism, which led to a fear that everyone that one knew was a communist. People would often turn in their neighbors to the police because they thought the neighbors were Communists.

                Hitler was so popular, even though his ideas were absurd, because he was a talented speaker. He also maliciously exaggerates his enemies. He says in a speech made to thousands of people, “The German nation had hoped to gain, in turn, the goodwill of others, but it met only the naked egotism of the cruelest and meanest vested interests, which began to loot everything there was to loot.” He claimed that he tried to negotiate with the allies and says that they were determined to take everything from Germany that they could for no reason. This is a blatant lie because it was Germany that was antagonizing the other countries. As everyone knows, Hitler believed that Jews were an inferior race. He says, “ I do not want to miss pointing out what I pointed out on 3rd of September [1940] in the German Reichstag, that if Jewry were to plunge the world into war, the role of Jewry would be finished in Europe.” Hitler is using fear and hyperbole by saying that Jews will lead to the destruction of the world. (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler013041.html).

                Propaganda is a very influential tool used by many speakers and activists, but it is always biased and cannot be used to form a competent opinion. Both sides of the situation must be looked at. It is a fantastic tool in the right hands and a horror in the wrong hands.