The+Slave+view+on+the+publication+of+the+book

Dayeon Song

1852- **Finally**. Finally it seems like the God is actually on our side, helping us to deal and cope with the brutal attitudes of the white men.

Harsh treatments of the white men relentlessly occurred, and it seems like living and even existing in this world is just very meaningless to me. There are times when I desperately want to speak up about my feelings whether I am happy, sad, angry, worried, and all the other words that relates to “feelings”. However, up till now, I had to look as if I am “fully” satisfied with this world and be respectful to my master no matter what kind of condition I was at. And I think this is absolutely unfair, having no freedom, although all humans were said to be created equally. So whenever I get back from laboring, I mostly complain about my life and pour all my angers until I feel much better about it. But my wife and children would encourage me and give hope that our life would soon be better than this and that I should endure for a bit more.

I should have been whining today as well but something shocking happened that made me go “unconscious” for a moment, but in a positive way. The novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, was the reason. Last week or so, one of my friends told me that this book was published and recommended me to read it as well. As what he has said, I did read the Uncle Tom’s Cabin and I somehow thought the book as an extraordinary one compared to other books that are normally published in the society. The book contained numerous aspects of us, the black slaves, and it mostly focused on the our life. In other words, it portrayed how the treatments towards the slaves were harsh and cruel- the book illustrated how husbands, wives, children, and parents were separated and how slaves were sold from places to places. I was astonished by the author the most, because the topic of slavery was too influential to be spoken in public. But at the same time, this publication allowed me to gain much hope because more people could understand about our feelings through reading the book that we were not able to express before.

Only few days have passed, but it looks like many people have read the Uncle Tom’s Cabin. While I was on the street walking, I could hear people talking about both positive and negative aspects of the book. When I was doing chores for my master, I heard master’s friends coming over and talking about how nonsense and how exaggerated this book was written. Whether people had nice or bad comments about it, I liked the fact that the awareness of the slavery was growing more and more by time to time. I once glanced at the newspaper and read that southerners were “anti-Toms”, that were strongly against this book; on the other hand, people in the north had contrary opinion where they went “for” this book. Well, I knew both North and South had opposite opinions, but it seemed like the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin has been creating and increasing the conflicts between the two. But what if such disagreement continues and eventually creates an American Civil War? I hope not, then the situation would get worse.

The book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin could have had negative effects on the southern society, but in my point of view, such publication is very convincing and effective; it even helped me to endure with greater hope as my wife told me before. I **hope** this book will raise more awareness and influence the rest of the people to know more about the “reality” of the slavery.

-Tony Brooker

http://www.old-picture.com/civil-war/pictures/Slave-Family.jpg
 * //Picture of our family//**

Used Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom%27s_Cabin http://www.uncletomscabin.org/history.htm http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/stowe-harriet-beecher-uncle-tom-s-cabin-life-among