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1.3 Stowe’s experience and motherhood thesis
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the famous female writer in American, contributed her whole life to protest slavery. She was born in a religious Christian family. The Fugitive Slave Law has a profound influence on her. She is a firm Christian and a mother who believes in love and self-sacrifice are sincere virtues which will save soul. She writes “I feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak… I hope every woman who can write will not be silent” (Hedrick and Stowe, 1995: 208). As a mother, it is natural for Mrs. Stowe to express her comprehension of motherhood and antislavery in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and to reflect female power by female characters. She sees many slave mothers who protect their children and family when they has already controlled by slavery. Based on reality and Stowe’s own experience, it is firm to support her to write about motherhood in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
1.4 The significance of the research
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is different from other antislavery stories which focus on miserable life of slaves. The novel criticizes slavery, and reveals Stowe’s idea about motherhood. Based on that, one main part of this article is going to explain the importance of slave mother according to the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. On the contrary, slave mother is hurt deeply because of slavery. Another part of this article will talk about the destruction of motherhood. Hence, with the contradiction of slave mother’s importance and destruction of motherhood by slavery, the result is to reflect the evil side of slavery. Thus, this article will point out that vicious slavery should be abolished.
As the documentations about Uncle Tom’s Cabin I collect, the majority of them discuss around Uncle Tom, and some of them would focus on female characters, but minority of them pay attention to female slave, not to mention slave mother. However, character slave mother is an accessory. Not much people realize a fact that slave mother, as a group of slave, takes an important character in the novel. In fact, Mrs. Stowe spends many chapters in describing slave mother, about their strong spirit, attitude towards slavery, family separation and so on. In Stowe’s work, many slave mothers are not the objects of bullying, but the resistant warriors. It draws two major points in the novel which are meaningful for this essay. One is that in the novel many scenes describe about how important slave mother is. Another is that slavery does destroy slave mother both psychologically and physiologically. Hence, depending on analyzing the character of slave mother in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and authentic history, how cruel slavery is and why it is urgent to abolish slavery can be revealed.
2. The Importance of Motherhood
To some degree, the theme of motherhood in the novel is not merely a subtheme to narrative. It’s both a unifying image to readers, which pushes the nation to realize the button line of slave trade. Saving slave mother, can be one of the urgent reasons to abolish slavery. Many literatures have described female slave, particular slave mother, about their kindness and courage. With the comparative of slavery and slave mother, the article would exhibit the contradictory relationship between them. In next chapter, I will discuss the importance of motherhood under the control of slavery. It will help to reflect indispensability of slave mother in slave group, and to expose how cruel the slavery was.
2.1 The main reliance of children
2.1.1 Taking care of children
Maternal love is tolerant and selfless, intangible but warm. For children and family, slave mother’ contribution was far more than slave father. At that time, if slaves were pregnant, children’s fathers can’t accompany with them. There are several reasons. Female slaves are raped by slaveholders. Slave mother and father are sold separately. Slave fathers have died before. Such unexpected coincidences happened in many slave mothers’ lives. Ascribing to those, slave mothers were the most essential persons to slave children. Life was tough, but depending on hardworking and self-sacrifice, slave mother could still raise children well.