Race and the American Project part 1: Personal synthesis

The theme of race is throughout the novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. In the novel we can see how race dictated your social standing. If you were an African American in the South, you were a slave. In class we talked a lot about how little Eva treats slaves compared to her parents and Aunt. Eva doesn’t let race dictate anything. She loves everyone as opposed to her parents. Her mother especially is an example of how race dictates how people were treated. She says, “Now, there’s no way with servants, but to put them down and keep them down”( page 157). Also multiple times throughout the book she calls the slaves “creatures”. This shows how not only she but other people as well view people based on race.

      In the textual background and context, they talk about how free African Americans from the north are kidnapped and taken to the south and sold into slavery. If those people were to speak up to the people they were sold to about how they are actually a free person, the master would take one look at their skin color/race and not do anything about it. The kidnappers know that because of their own race they can act superior and treat the African Americans, even though they are free, any way they want to. I think even though its wrong, some people in modern times still judge people based on their race/ what they look like.

      Race is a theme in the critical commentary as well. The author takes a look at how African American’s view Stowe’s book.  Because of their race, slaves didn’t have a voice, so Stowe’s book helped to spark that voice, but at the same time appeal to whites. Also the author talks about how a former ex-slave has the opinion that Stowe didn’t put the worst of slavery in her novel because she doesn’t know much about it. I think that statement has a lot to do with the point of view of different races. As a different race, they had different experiences than Stowe did. As a white person, Stowe never had to endure what they went through and therefore couldn’t fully represent and be the voice of African Americans. I think if Stowe would have put the worst in her novel, she would’ve made the whites look worse and wouldn’t appeal to the white people as much as her novel did.

      Race is such a controversial topic still today, just as it was when Stowe was writing her novel. Her whole book revolves around slavery and the life of people of the African American race. I think when reading the book, it’s easy to see how race is a dominant theme in this novel. Also our class discussions, reading the textual background and context, and reading the critical commentary I can see how race was a theme in those as well. It was really hard to read this knowing that people were actually treated this way for generations and generations. I can’t imagine someone coming into my home and beating my family and selling any of us into slavery, knowing you’ll never see each other again. Personally, I think now that it’s modern times and there’s not really any need to appeal to whites like there was, it would’ve been more interesting to get the whole side of the story. She left out the worst of slavery and I think getting to read that part of it as well would fill in the “gaps” and “silence” that was talked about previously.