Object Details
- originator of scene
- Stowe, Harriet Beecher
- Strong, Thomas W.
- Description
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book. It features a spirited, religious-minded enslaved black man named Tom, who is sold downriver by his financially-strapped owner in Kentucky to a plantation in Louisiana. There, his Christian beliefs spread hope to his fellow slaves and enable him to endure the harsh beatings of his cruel master. He is ultimately whipped to death after refusing to reveal the location of two runaway slaves. Published after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the novel targeted Northern audiences, arguing against the injustice of slavery and spurring the abolition movement into action.
- Although the bestselling novel of the 19th century, many American were exposed to Uncle Tom’s Cabin through play adaptations known as Tom shows. The immense popularity of both the novel and plays transformed Uncle Tom into a cultural phenomenon in America and Europe, and manufacturers quickly capitalized on the production of “Tomitudes,” everyday commodities that referenced scenes and characters from the novel. These included card games, jigsaw puzzles, chinaware, jars and vases, snuffboxes, ceramic figurines, and decorative prints. Although some of these Tomitudes employed racial stereotypes and the imagery of blackface minstrelsy, most chose to depict the enslaved characters of Beecher’s novel in a sympathetic light, often carrying an anti-slavery message.
- The most popular depictions of Uncle Tom were those in which he was accompanied by the young white girl, Eva St. Clare. Representations of their companionship conveyed a message of racial bonding and celebrated the characters’ shared Christian faith. This colored print around 1853 depicts a scene from Chapter 14 of the novel, in which Tom rescues Eva after she has fallen from the deck of a riverboat into the waters of the Mississippi. The artist has chosen to focus on Tom’s strength and ability, sacrificing the realism of other figures. Eva, held tightly in Tom’s grasp, appears doll-like, and one of the men standing on the boat has been drawn awkwardly miniscule to create an illusion of depth. Tom grasps a rope that has been lowered by a man aboard the riverboat. In return for saving his daughter, Eva’s father purchases Tom and the slave moves in with the St. Clare family in their New Orleans home. There, he begins driving the family’s coach, but he quickly earns their confidence, eventually managing their finances.
- Thomas W. Strong was a New York-based printer and wood engraver who began his career around 1840. His shop specialized in comic literature and he employed many talented cartoonists and draftsmen who would go on to work for Harper’s Weekly and Vanity Fair. This print was the third in a series by Strong of scenes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
- Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) rose to fame in 1851 with the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which highlighted the evils of slavery, angered the slaveholding South, and inspired pro-slavery copy-cat works in defense of the institution of slavery. Stowe’s father was the famed Congregational minister Lyman Beecher and her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, was also a famous preacher and reformer. In 1824, she attended her sister Catherine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary, which exposed young women to many of the same courses available in men’s academies. Stowe became a teacher, working from 1829 to 1832 at the Seminary.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote numerous articles, some of which were published in the renowned women’s magazine of the times, Godey’s Lady’s Book. She also wrote 30 books, covering a wide range of topics from homemaking to religion, as well as several novels. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which legally compelled Northerners to return runaway slaves, infuriated Stowe, and many in the North. She subsequently authored her most famous work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Originally serialized in the National Era, Stowe saw her tale as a call to arms for Northerners to defy the Fugitive Slave Act. It was released as a book in 1852 and later performed on stage and translated into dozens of languages. Stowe used her fame to petition to end slavery. She toured nationally and internationally, speaking about her book, and donating some of what she earned to help the antislavery cause.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
- ca 1853
- ID Number
- DL.60.2373A
- catalog number
- 60.2373A
- accession number
- 228146
- Object Name
- Lithograph
- Object Type
- Lithograph
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- ink (overall material)
- Measurements
- image: 11 3/4 in x 8 3/4 in; 29.845 cm x 22.225 cm
- overall: 16 in x 11 in; 40.64 cm x 27.94 cm
- place made
- United States: New York, New York City
- See more items in
- Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
- American Civil War Prints
- Art
- Domestic Furnishings
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- African American
- depicted
- Eagles
- referenced
- Civil War
- Subject
- Slavery
- Record ID
- nmah_324701
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b5-0096-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
