Incidents follows the "true story" (its authenticity is doubted in some places) of Linda [Jacobs uses a pseudonym] who is born into the shackles of slavery and yearns for freedom. She lives with a depraved slave master who dehumanizes her, and a mistress who mistreats her. As the novel progresses, Linda becomes increasingly starved of freedom and resolves to escape, but Linda finds that even escaping presents its problems.
But Incidents is more than just a gripping narration of one woman's crusade for freedom, and is rather an organized attack on Slavery, intended to convince even the most apathetic of northerners. And in this too, Incidents succeeds. The writing is clear, and Jacobs' use of rhetorical strategy to preserve integrity is astonishing.
Well written, convincing, entertaining, Incidents is an amazing book.
I had expected to have problems reading the book. For one thing, I expected either a convoluted prose style or an offensive parody of slave dialect. I also anticipated a graphic description of the violence perpetrated on individuals considered chattel by their owners. Instead I found the work to have been clearly written. It is remarkable for the literacy of its author-Ms Thomas was taught to read and write by the first owner of her family-and the care with which it's editor, L. Maria Child, took to preserve the author's intentions. Dialect was introduced only where it furthered the narrative and where the individual was likely to have spoken in the manner described. Violence is described but not so graphically as to entirely put off the reader.
Instead of the sensationalism that might have been used to promote her cause, the author provides insight into the emotional losses, personal deprivations, and incredible uncertainty in the lives of the individuals enduring slavery. She emphasizes her point by demonstrating her willingness to undergo a seemingly unending imprisonment in an attic with only a tiny peep hole out onto the world rather than continue as a slave. The great sacrifices and risks that others assumed in order for her and others like her to escape to freedom in the north underscores the extent to which the vicissitudes of the institution created a network among those opposed to it and those oppressed by it. Most poignant is her description of New Years as being a time of great tribulation for the slave. Unlike the white members of southern society who looked forward to the new year with festivity and expectation, the slave family looked upon it as a tragedy waiting to happen. Rentals and sales of individuals on that day tore families apart, husbands from wives, children from parents, often never to be reunited or even heard of again, and no slave or slave family could ever feel they were entirely safe. Sadder still were those cases of slaves who had been promised their freedom by kinder owners, only to have these promises abrogated by the heirs or to discover that no actual paperwork had been put into motion prior to the death of the individual.
Ms Thomas also makes a strong case for the damage that slavery caused to white society as well. Just by relating her own experiences and those of people around her, she recreates the anger felt by white wives who discovered that their husbands had had children by slave women, the blunted feelings of white men who, no matter what their feelings for those children, were caught up in a society that punished them for "recognizing" any children by black mistresses, the poverty and anger of the average white wage earner caught in an economy where he had to compete with poorly maintained, unpaid labor in order to make a living, and so on. In short Ms Thomas makes it abundantly apparent that the institution of slavery dehumanized both the enslaver and the enslaved.
One thing especially of note is the author's observation that the north was hardly better. She was free, perhaps, but only free to be second class. While recognizing that slavery was incompatible with the institution of democracy, northerners were still, with rare exception, prejudiced against individuals of non-white background. I think a case could easily be made that it is the more silent prejudice of the north that has perpetuated the inequities that still plague the lives of non-white Americans today.
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Published in 1851, Uncle Tom's Cabin increased the support of abolitionists in the United States. It unveiled the evils of slavery to the public. People were shocked at the horrors of slavery and quickly became abolitionists. Uncle Tom's Cabin is one of the most famous books of the 1800s. I enjoyed the book very much. It perfectly blends mystery, humor, and drama. I recommend this book to anyone who is intrigued with the Civil War, or anyone looking for a classic.
As for flaws, yes, Mrs. Stowe does sermonize a fair bit, and her sentences and pronouncements can be smug. Yes, if you're not a Christian, you may find all her Christian references a bit much. (But the majority of her readers claimed to be Christian, and it was her appeal to the spirit of Christ that was her most powerful tug at the emotions of her readers). Yes, she still had some stereotypical views of African-Americans (frankly, I think most people have stereotypical views of races other than their own, they just don't state them as clearly today). But in her time, she went far beyond the efforts of most of her contemporaries to both see and portray her African-American brothers and sisters are equal to her. The best way she did this was in her multi-dimensional portrayal of her Negro characters -- they are, in fact, more believable and more diverse than her white characters. Yes, at times her portrayal of Little Eva and Uncle Tom is overdone at times -- they are a little cardboard in places -- but both, Uncle Tom especially, are overall believable, and very inspiring. The rest of the Negro characters - George Harris, Eliza, Topsy, Cassie, Emmeline, Chloe, Jane and Sara, Mammy, Alphonse, Prue, and others, span the whole spectrum of humanity -- they are vivid and real.
The comments of a previous reviewer that the book actually justifies slavery (because "it says it's no worse than capitalism") and that it shows that Christianity defends slavery are due to sloppy reading of the book. No one reading the book could possibly come to the conclusion that it does anything but condemn slavery in the strongest and most indubitable terms. This was the point of the book. The aside about capitalism was just that, an aside on the evils of capitalism. It did not and does not negate the attack on slavery. Secondly, another major point of the book is that TRUE Christianity does not and could not ever support slavery. Stowe points out the Biblical references used to claim that Christianity defended slavery merely to show how the Bible can be misused by those who wish to defend their own indefensible viewpoint. It's ridiculous to say that the book "shows that Christianity supported slavery". It shows that some misguided preachers abused certain Bible passages and ignored other ones to support their view of slavery.
There is an overlay of the tired "Victorian women's novel" to this piece - that must be granted. For literary perfection, it will never take its place beside Tolstoy, Dickens and Austen. But it is a piece entirely of its own category. Nothing before or after it has been anything like it, and it IS a great, if flawed, novel. I highly recommend it. I give it 5 stars despite its flaws because it's utterly unique, and its greatness is in some ways is related to its flaws.
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