PROLOGUE:
“ONCE UPON a TIME” … an AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY BOOK, “UNCLE TOM’s CABIN” (1851), EVENTUALLY STARTED a WAR that would EVENTUALLY END SLAVERY in the UNITED STATES … at great cost
MEANWHILE, in GERMANY, the “COMMUNIST MANIFESTO” (1848) was PUBLISHED by KARL MARX and FRIEDRICH ENGELS … a “UTOPIAN’ WRITING that WOULD END UP LEADING TENS of MILLIONS INTO SLAVERY, MURDER and MASS MISERY …
IN the BEGINNING ... there was “The DIALECTIC” … demi-GOD of HISTORY … CULT of PROGRESS … REDEMPTION LEADING ALL to HEAVEN … WITHOUT GOD …
REPLACEMENT of a FAILED GOD … RECREATE the GARDEN … BUILD TOTALITARIAN TOWERS to HEAVEN … without restraint … do as they IMAGINE …
FASCIST “RE-BIRTH” … RE-MAKE HUMANITY … the NEW “SOVIET MAN” would emerge … “CIVIC” RELIGION … “MIXED” CHURCH and STATE … SUBJUGATION … SEPARATION of CHURCH and STATE …
DIVORCED from the DIVINE (GOD) … IDOL-atry … God-substitutes … pro-“church” … ANTI-GOD … HUMANism …
“TRUE BELIEVERS” …
DUELING “CRUSADES” … a SECOND “AMERICA” … vs “A City on a Hill”
MARXist MYTHOLOGY …
“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth–persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations.
We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
dialectic (“progress”) vs destiny (disciple-ship) … in God We Trust
OPIATE of the MASSES … Israel = God Governed
OPPRESSOR of the MASSES … the Underworld Railroad … better to rule hell
dialectic (idolatry) denial vs divine deliverance
“COMRADES” (collective) vs “CRUSADE” … SAINTS …
creatures vs Creator
POWER (road to serfdom – hell) vs PEACE (the great escape – heaven)
GREED (materialism-mammon) vs GRACE (transcendence-meaning)
“The STRUGGLE” (proletariat) vs “The WAY” (pilgrims)
BURDENS (dialectic) vs BLESSINGS (divine)
“FOOD” (satan-ic) vs “FRUIT” (the Savior)
REBELLION (vs a Failed God) vs RESTORATION
IDENTITY (who you are) vs INTEGRITY (what you stand for)
the “PREDATOR” … HIS “PREY” …
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
So that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of HIS DESIGNS.” – 2 Cor 2:11
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat” – Luke 22:31
“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.” – Matthew 13:19
“In which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the PRINCE of the POWER of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” – Ephesians 2:2
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees: and the wolf catches them, and scatters the sheep. – John 10:12
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Church (“Ecclesia” – out called ones) To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” Revelation 2:7.
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a MURDERER from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is NO TRUTH in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the FATHER of LIES.” – John 8:44
“In their case the god of this world has BLINDED the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”. – 2 Corinthians 4:4
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead“
the FALL …
“SIN” of IN-EQUALITY … REBELS AGAINST GOD’s REALITY …
the IDOL of EQUALITY …
GOD of GOVERNMENT … the COLLECTIVE …
REDEMPTION … a MESSIANIC CLASS …
the WILL to POWER (by any means necessary) …
SOLD DOWN the MISSISSIPPI of MARX-ist MISERY” …
RIVERBOATS of RESENTMENT …
DOWN the ROAD to SERFDOM …
MALIGNANT NARCISSISM …
“PROGRESSIVE” PLANTATIONS …
“ESCAPE” by the “UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” …
Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead“
the HADES EXPRESS …
“OVERTHROW GOD” … DESTROY CAPITALISM”
BETTER to RULE HELL …
the UNDERWORLD RAILROAD … (dystopian hell)
FATHER of LIES … REBELS … a THIRD of HEAVEN … HATERS of GOD’s TRUTH …
LIKE a PREDATOR …
The ALMIGHTY vs ABSURD (nihilism … narcissism … nonsense … (leading) nowhere …
RESISTANCE is NOT FUTILE …
FED the “EDEMAs” of EQUALITY … EXPLOITATION … ENVY
A DIET of FISCAL FUTILITY … COMMUNIST CANNIBALism …
ANOREXIC ALIENATION … ECONOMIC “BINGE and PURGE” …
DEATH by DYSTOPIAN DIARRHEA …
COMMUNIST CHOLERA …
COMMUNIST CANNIBALISM …
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written after the passage of the ECONOMIC Fugitive Slave (soul) Act of 1850, which made it illegal for anyone in the United States to offer aid or assistance to a runaway slave SOUL
ceaselessly advocating the immediate emancipation of the slaves and freedom for all people.
Tom explains why he refuses to run, because his being sold will keep “all the people on the place,” including his wife and children, from being sold
PROGRESSIVE PLANTATIONS …
the MORALITY of economic SLAVERY … to persuade the reader—especially the Northern reader of Stowe’s time – that slavery is evil, un-Christian, and intolerable in a civil society
the GREAT RESET … “sustainable” = salvation … return to “stone age” … return to hammers and sickle … cancel culture …
endowed with a “strength such as God gives only to the desperate,” facilitating her escape from oppression.
Incompatibility of Slavery & Christian Values … “PROGRESS” vs PATRIOTism
Before Eva dies, she glimpses a view of heaven and experiences a miraculous presentiment of her own death
USEFUL IDIOTS …
“This is God’s curse on slavery!—a bitter, bitter, most accursed thing!—a curse to the master and a curse to the slave! I was a fool to think I could make anything good out of such a deadly evil. It is a sin to hold a slave under laws like ours,—I always felt it was,—I always thought so when I was a girl,—I thought so still more after I joined the church; but I thought I could gild it over,—I thought, by kindness, and care, and instruction, I could make the condition of mine better than freedom—fool that I was!”
POWER and PRIVILEGE …
PATHOLOGY of PROGRESSIVE PROJECTION
BAIT and SWITCH …
false security … perpetual poverty
LIBERAL LEVIATHAN …
CRISIS … CRUSADE …
show of strength by one oppressed group can help to alleviate the oppression of the other. White women can use their influence to convince their husbands—the people with voting rights—of the evil of slavery.
REJECTION of HUMAN NATURE … false consciousness …
RESULTS in IN-HUMANITY …
ALIENATION …
hate Thanksgiving and Christmas …
Thanksgiving … gratitude to creator is vile … Birth of Savior is offensive
hate gratitude and Grace
despair fuels their “agenda” …
EXCUSE of “OPPRESSION” … to become the “OPPRESSOR” …
EXPLOITATION to become the “EXPLOITER” …
a ZERO SUM world … everything LEVEL-ed LOW
CREATE PROBLEM … MANUFACTURE MISERY … PRETEND SOLUTION ONLY HALF AS BAD AS PROBLEM … regrettable redemption …
PROPERTY … FUEL … DESTROY ANY INDEPENDENCE … RENTERS … NOT OWNERS …
cultural Marx-ism … destroy GOD … FREEDOM … capitalism …
sacrificial death linked to Christ’s. Eva and Tom, the two most morally perfect characters in the novel, both die in atmospheres of charged religious belief, and both die, in a sense, to achieve salvation for others
motif of Christ-like sacrifice and death … Christian goodness while holding up models of moral perfection for her reader to emulate. It also enables her to create the emotionally charged, sentimental death scenes popular
The Supernatural
OBJECTIVE … KILL the SPIRIT … SOUL SACRIFICE …
Several supernatural instances of divine intervention in the novel suggest that a higher order exists to oppose slavery.
a LOWER POWER to serve …
when they look at Uncle Tom’s cabin, they should remember their freedom and dedicate themselves to leading a Christian life like Uncle Tom’s.
metaphor for Uncle Tom’s willingness to be beaten and even killed rather than harm or betray his fellow slaves—his willingness to suffer and die rather than go against Christian values of love and loyalty
the destructive power of slavery and the ability of Christian love to overcome it.
CHARACTERS
Aunt Chloe Uncle Tom’s acts like a jovial simpleton around the Shelbys to mask her more complex feelings.
Arthur Shelby The owner sells Tom to the cruel Mr. Haley to pay off his debts
A “LIBERAL” educated, kind, and basically good-hearted man, Shelby nonetheless tolerates and perpetuates slavery
the immorality inherent in slavery makes villains of all its practitioners—not just the most cruel masters.
Emily ShelbyMr. Shelby’s wife a loving, Christian woman who does not believe in slavery. She uses her influence with her husband to help … one of the novel’s many morally virtuous and insightful female characters.
George ShelbyCalled … good-hearted son. He loves Tom and promises to rescue him from the cruelty into which his father sold him. After Tom dies, he resolves to free all the slaves on the family farm in Kentucky. More morally committed than his father … possesses a kind heart but acts on his principles.
George HarrisEliza’s husband and an intellectually curious and talented mulatto, George loves his family deeply and willingly fights for his freedom. He confronts the slave hunter Tom Loker and does not hesitate to shoot him when he imperils the family.
Eliza HarrisMrs. Shelby’s maid, George’s wife, and Harry’s mother, Eliza is an intelligent, beautiful, and brave young slave. After Mr. Shelby makes known his plans to sell Eliza’s son to Mr. Haley, she proves the force of her motherly love as well as her strength of spirit by making a spectacular escape. Her crossing of the Ohio River on patches of ice is the novel’s most famous scene.
Harry HarrisEliza and George’s son, a young boy.
Augustine St. ClareTom’s master a flighty and romantic man, dedicated to pleasure. St. Clare does not believe in God, and he carouses and drinks every night. Although he dotes on his daughter and treats his slaves with compassion, St. Clare shares the hypocrisy of Mr. Shelby … he sees the evil of slavery but nonetheless tolerates and practices it.
EvaSt. Clare and Marie’s angelic daughter. Eva, also referred to in the book as Little Eva (her given name is Evangeline) is presented as an absolutely perfect child—a completely moral being and an unimpeachable Christian. She laments the existence of slavery and sees no difference between blacks and whites. After befriending Tom while still a young girl, Eva becomes one of the most important figures in his life. In death, Eva becomes one of the text’s central Christ figures.
Miss OpheliaSt. Clare’s cousin help him manage the household, Ophelia opposes slavery in the abstract. However, she finds actual slaves somewhat distasteful and harbors considerable prejudice against them … learns to see slaves as human beings. Stowe hoped that much of her Northern audience might recognize themselves in Ophelia and reconsider their views on slavery.
MarieSt. Clare’s wife, a self-centered woman. Petty, whining, and foolish, she is the very opposite of the idealized woman figure that appears repeatedly throughout the novel.
The Quakers … a Christian group that arose in mid-seventeenth-century England, dedicated themselves to achieving an inner understanding of God, without the use of creeds, clergy, or outward rites … a long history of social reform and peace … a Christianity free of hypocrisy, self-righteous display, or bigoted conventions
Senator and Mrs. Bird another example of the virtuous woman. She tries to exert influence through her husband. Senator Bird exemplifies the well-meaning man who is sympathetic to the abolitionist cause but who nonetheless remains complacent or resigned to the status quo.
Tom LokerA slave hunter hired by Mr. Haley to bring back Eliza, Harry, and George, Tom Loker first appears as a gruff, violent man. George shoots him when he tries to capture them, and, after he is healed by the Quakers, Loker experiences a transformation and chooses to join the Quakers rather than return to his old life.
Mr. HaleyThe slave trader who buys Uncle Tom and Harry from Mr. Shelby. A gruff, coarse man, Haley presents himself as a kind individual who treats his slaves well. Haley, however, mistreats his slaves, often violently.
TopsyA wild and uncivilized slave girl whom Miss Ophelia tries to reform, Topsy gradually learns to love and respect others by following the example of Eva.
Simon LegreeTom’s ruthlessly evil master on the Louisiana plantation. A vicious, barbaric, and loathsome man, Legree fosters violence and hatred among his slaves.Read an in-depth analysis of Simon Legree.
CassyLegree’s (slave) mistress a proud and intelligent woman and devises a clever way to escape Legree’s plantation.
EmmelineA young and beautiful slave girl whom Legree buys for himself, perhaps to replace Cassy as his mistress. She has been raised as a pious Christian.