Uncle Tom's Cabin

So, yeah, I had never read Uncle Tom's Cabin until recently. Somewhere in my other reading, UTC was mentioned so I added it to my Kindle wish list. After finishing my last book, I found myself without anything else to read and no $ to buy a new one. Thanks to my Kindle, I was able to download UTC free since it is in the public domain (reason 248 to have a digital reader). Aaaanywaaay . . . .

I was amazed. This is a wonderful book. Writing prior to the Civil War, Harriet Beecher Stowe does a remarkable job of exploring the many different aspects of slavery - from the typical horror stories we are all familiar with to the slave masters who voluntarily freed their own slaves only to have those same slaves refuse to leave and beg to stay.

Through it all, Uncle Tom rises above all the rest, slave and free, in terms of character, truth and compassion. I have often heard people referred to derisively as "Uncle Toms" as if that were some sort of insult. In my view, Uncle Tom is an obvious Christ character in the book and as such, I am inclined to think that people who use the term "Uncle Tom" in a mocking fashion have probably not actually read the book for themselves.

UTC is a classic for very good reasons and I definitely feel that I came away with a better understanding of the slavery issue during the middle of the 19th century. Everyone should read this book.