History of the United States I / Unit 14 USH1 1971 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The idea
The novel's argument runs in two parts. Slavery is sinful because it destroys families, separating children from parents and spouses from one another. And slavery corrupts the White citizens who practise it, shown through slaveholders who believed enslaved people lacked White people's feelings, and through the dealer Simon Legree, who beat enslaved people and sexually exploited an enslaved woman. The book became the nineteenth century's bestseller, spawned theatre and music, was translated into sixty languages, and remains in print today.
In practice
A novel that made the case against slavery as a case about families, addressed to readers who had families and no direct knowledge of the institution.
Where people slip
The novel demonstrated women's power shaping public opinion, and Stowe and others held themselves morally obligated to mould the nation's conscience despite lacking voting rights. Set that beside Unit 13. The same argument that sent women into abolition sent them into print, and print was the one public instrument the law did not deny them.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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