First-hand+account+of+Thomas+Greene,+a+Wealthy+Southern+Plantation+owner

By Yongmin Cho

Thomas Greene Who: A 48 year-old plantation owner. He owns ‘Greene Plantations,’ the most successful cotton plantation in Alabama. Where: Mobile, Alabama When: 1852

Summer of 1852

I have lived all of my life in Alabama and never have I laid my eyes upon a more criminal and slanderous novel. The book is disparages the very fundamentals of our nation’s economy and culture. It threatens the welfare of the American people and the generations to come.

I became acquainted with the book few weeks past, when Mary, my only eight year-old daughter tugged at my sleeve and asked, “Papa, Why do they have to beat uncle Tom? He didn’t do anything wrong.” After hearing these words come from Mary’s mouth I became enraged, but even more, fearful. I had worked hard for decades to establish my own plantation, so that I would be able to raise a wealthy family. The whole day I would be in the fields working dozens of slaves, often using physical punishment to fuel these brutes to laborious work. If they were spotted loitering around the porch, I would whip them and they would squeal like swine, and off they were to pick more cotton. Now, when I have finally achieved kudos as a plantation owner (Greene Plantation is certainly the most noteworthy plantation in all of Alabama), and preside over more than a hundred slaves, my eight-year-old daughter comes to me and says that the beating of these callous creatures is unjustified? Does she not understand that her wellbeing, the good food she eats and the good clothes she wears justifies for their beating? These slaves have been disciplined into work for one reason and one reason only; to ensure the welfare of my daughter and my family! What could have provoked her of such ludicrous idea in the first place? What could have made my daughter become so ignorant to the most obvious and indispensable facet of the American culture? Then I saw, the book that she held in her hands, ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ She had acquired it during her field trip to Birmingham; we surely did not have them in Mobile. Immediately took the book from my daughter’s hands and threw it into the fireplace. It is frightening what a book can do to a person’s mind. I had almost let Mary become corrupted by the evil text.

Harriet Beecher Stowe interprets slavery as an evil and immoral deed. But why should she seek sympathy for these slaves, as if they are not cared for already? If it weren’t for plantation owners and other slave owners, these Black savages would not be cared for at all! They would be social pariahs of the American society. Unemployed and homeless, these animals would roam the American streets helplessly, dazzled by the superiority of the American people. And to say that these slaves are being ‘immorally’ treated is an unduly assertion. We provide them food and shelter, at the expense of their work and obedience. If there’s partiality in that, it would be that we are providing too much for these slaves. Rather than feeling grateful that they are able to enjoy a human life along with us Americans, these slaves create rebellions and try to overthrow their masters.

A few days ago, a bookseller here attempted to sell ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ to the citizens of Mobile. Indeed, he was met with fierce opposition and anger; Mark Thompson was the bookseller’s name. He sure had some guts to try and sell his novel here. I don’t know the details, but I’m sure he was forced to leave the town and was banished for life.

I considered writing letters to Stowe for publishing this outrageous novel. What does she know about slavery in the South? Her story is not based on ground evidence from experience, but fabricated by assumptions and stories she had heard from others. Stowe, I believe most of her life in Ohio, where she would seldom see slaves being sold along the Ohio River. The fact that she wrote a novel about a slavery in the South based on a few scenes is utterly ridiculous. Thus, Harriet Beecher Stowe is a presumptuous writer, and her writings do not truthfully reflect the Southern lifestyle.

Damned abolitionists! Why should they risk the wellbeing of the American people at the expense of protecting rights of these inhuman beings? It isn’t worth it! I could never have a good night’s sleep until these abolitionists ceased to exist. They are merely unpatriotic conspirators who wish to see the turmoil of the American society. Nonetheless, slavery has already become too much of an integral part of Southern America. To do away with this long-held tradition would be to slit the throats of the American people.

Information Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom%27s_Cabin http://www.cyberspacei.com/jesusi/peace/abolitionism/tom.htm Image Sources: http://thepresidentsatbigmo.blogspot.com/2007/06/number-12-zachary-taylor.html