{"id":10567,"date":"2021-11-19T11:26:54","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T10:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10567"},"modified":"2021-11-19T13:14:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T12:14:53","slug":"uncle-toms-cabin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10567","title":{"rendered":"Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

OFF THE SHELF<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This month\u2019s reading was a classic novel written in 1852. Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin<\/span><\/em> written by Harriet Beecher Stowe was the best-selling novel and the second best-selling book of the 19th century. One million copies were sold in Great Britain alone.<\/p>\n

The emotive story features Uncle Tom, as a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of other characters revolve.<\/p>\n

Reading the novel more than a century and a half after it was written gave us mixed feelings. On the one hand, the brutal reality experienced by many slaves at that time was hard to digest. The racist language which represented the attitudes expressed by slave-owners of the period was difficult to read. On the other hand, we felt that the novel was over-sentimental in its depiction of slaves as being able to endure any form of hardship and mistreatment if only they had the Christian belief in a heavenly reward for their suffering.<\/p>\n

Beecher Stowe was herself a fervent Christian and an anti-slavery activist. Her powerful novel was influential in aiding the abolitionist cause. It was also instrumental in stereotyping black people of the time as simple child-like, faithful creatures, eager to serve a good master.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, we considered the book a good if uncomfortable read, giving us a brutal insight to our shameful past. It was a particularly pertinent read in October\u2019s Black History Month. We gave the book a score of 7.5\/10<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  OFF THE SHELF This month\u2019s reading was a classic novel written in 1852. Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe was the best-selling novel and the second best-selling book of the 19th century. One million copies were sold in Great Britain alone. The emotive story features Uncle Tom, as a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[347],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-2Kr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16754,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16754","url_meta":{"origin":10567,"position":0},"title":"“The Colour Purple ” by Alice Walker","author":"Alan Williams","date":"26th March 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"OFF THE SHELF \"The Colour Purple \" by Alice Walker \u00a0 \u00a0 This is a modern classic first published in 1982. It is a powerful story of severe trauma, domestic abuse, racism and violence that came with being a black woman in the Southern States of America in the early\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for April 2026"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for April 2026","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=432"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9204,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9204","url_meta":{"origin":10567,"position":1},"title":"The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd March 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"OFF THE SHELF \"The Long Winter\" by Laura Ingalls Wilder This is an autobiographical children\u2019s novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She shares with us the harsh conditions of being brought up as a child in the late 19th century in one of the hardest winters of South Dakota. 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