LITR 4232: American Renaissance
UHCL, spring 2001
Sample Student Paper

Keely Coufal
LITR 4232
19 April 2001

Harriet Beecher Stowe:

A Christian Mother's Stand

The nineteenth century proved to be a period of turmoil for women and the role they would play in an ever-changing America. Women contended with not only hard living in the domestic sphere, but were impacted by the undercurrent of slavery issues. The Anti-slavery movement and Women's rights movement were bringing forth a new dimension of writers taking hard positions on these issues. Harriet Beecher Stowe became one of the country's most well known writers who bridged these factions together with her famous book, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Her position was not from the perspective of women's rights as much as the rights and freedom of slaves. Stowe appealed to the basis of Christian beliefs and maternal instincts more than that of the assertive and vocal Women's movement. She deftly steps aside from the more liberal feministic ideas, instead focusing on more traditional aspects of the role of women, particularly mothers. It is through this mode that she cries out against the insidiousness of slavery. The role of mother represents not just a domestic maternal figure confined to family, but also a universal figure who is led by Christian beliefs with compassion and empathy towards all who are suffering.

The origins of Harriet Beecher Stoweâs beliefs began as a child. Although her mother died when Harriet was five, her mother left an undeniable impact on her children (Adams 20). The image of Roxena Beecher, Harrietâs mother was of a saintly woman who embodied all aspects of a virtuous loving mother. Roxena Beecher had many children and lived in struggling, difficult conditions, much the way Harriet did when she became a mother. According to one biographer, when Roxena died, "she became pure spirit with them all, an ideal, the family's Virgin Mary, the symbol of all that was most perfect in womanhood" (Hedrick 7). Harriet was compelled to measure up to the same aspirations as her mother had. She emulated her mother's pious and humble nature, and was reinforced by her father who was a popular minister. The Puritan attitudes of Christianity were stamped onto Stowe's character as she proved through many of her writings.

It is this image of the "universal" mother that Stowe works with, in her famous book Uncle Tom's Cabin. In the spiritual sense, a mother's love is likened to that of Christ. Her love is unconditional for her children, similar to the divine love of God. It is this comparison that offers a new insight of motherhood. Not only does a mother love her own children with purity, but also she feels that love elevated towards all children. The ideal mother in Stowe's opinion is one who transcends her love towards all who suffer. The father figure in many of her writings is authoritative and protective towards his family, but often cannot understand the concerns of women towards other people. It is these concerns for slaves through the eyes of every mother that motivates Stowe and propels her message. In the concluding remarks of Uncle Tom's Cabin Stowe states,

"·And you, mothers of America, --you who have learned, by the cradles of your own children, to love and feel for all mankind, by the sacred love you bear your child;" (Hedrick 401).

Harriet Beecher Stowe presented America and the world at large a parade of dynamic, courageous, exquisite mothers whose voices resonated above any march for freedom rights. These characters speak out against the horrors of slavery, emerging from the pages as real flesh and blood women, declaring their solidarity and resistance to the sin of slavery. Their backgrounds, faiths, and skin color are different, yet they are identical in their capacity of love. Joan Hedrick describes these women saying, "Stowe created in her fiction a large panorama of mother surrogates who in their combination of realism and feeling are among her most interesting characters" (16). It is the usage of these maternal figures that hits so close to home with her readers, because most can identify with the pleas of a mother. Rather than forcibly argue against the crime of slavery Stowe utilizes " the mother's cry" to move the hearts and minds of America.

The most inspiring women in Stowe's stories are that of the slave mothers. There are so many instances of raw pain that the slave mother conveys when time and again a child is torn away from her in the most brutal circumstances. Through the simple words and tears of a slave mother the reader feels the hurt she suffers and cannot helped but to be moved by it. The theme of Christianity flows through many of these slave dialogues, as the child-like voice of a mother speaks directly without pretense, crossing boundaries of culture and intellect. In The Minister's Wooing, the black servant Candace expresses the love of God and motherhood in such an understated way, saying, " Look right at Jesus· Don't ye' member how He looked on His mother, when she stood faintin' an tremblin' under de cross jes' like you? He knows all about mother's hearts" (--22381). After reading the words of this fictional mother there is little doubt to the nature of Stowe's insight in the hearts of the slave mother.

Stowe presents the most powerful image of desperation when the slave mother is moved to despair by sacrificing the life of her baby rather than letting it grow up to be a slave. Several times this tragic event is played out to the reader. Haley, the slave trader in Uncle Tom's Cabin describes a slave mother driven to extremes when her blind baby was about to be taken from her, relating the story he says, "·but come to get him away from the gal, she was jest like a tiger· she saw't wan't no use and jests turns around and pitches head first, young un an all, into the river,"(Hedrick 128). Another slave mother, Cassy watched as her children were forcibly taken from her. With the birth of her last child she declares, "I would never again let a child live to grow up" (Hedrick 346). She lovingly gives the baby laudanum, holding him close while he slept to death.

The centerpiece of slave mothers in Uncle Tom's Cabin is Eliza Harris. Her fearsome and dangerous journey of escape and freedom is a symbol of hope towards the larger effort to free slaves. Eliza's survival is essential to the story in that it counters the pain and suffering of those other fictional mothers who did not escape. Through Elizaâs encounters with people who genuinely want to help her, Stowe helps to redeem society to an extent that not everyone has a blind eye to the abusiveness of slavery. Eliza is a beacon of light to an otherwise hopeless situation for all other slaves. The reader cheers her on with each narrow escape. As this book's popularity rose so were the eyes open to the travesty being played out in America. Eliza and Uncle Tom, both were figures that represented all of the very real slaves during the time it was published. Uncle Tom became the sacrificial lamb as a symbol of all slaves. His tender nature and unwavering faith is likened to the crucifixion of Jesus because he suffered in the name of all those who have suffered with him. For Uncle Tom, his redemption was a spiritual ascent to heaven and for Eliza it was the spiritual and physical ascent to freedom. The maternal drive and determination in Eliza was to propel all mothers who read about her to be spurned into action and take a stand against slavery.

The images of motherhood are not confined only to slave mothers. Stowe makes it impossible to look pass the "universal mother" when making an argument defending slavery. This mother image is constantly surfacing in her stories, most poignantly in Uncle Tom's Cabin. One of the most pure portrayals of a mother is that of Rachel Halliday. Her character goes beyond the average loving mother, appearing more like an icon of ultimate motherhood. Stowe introduces Rachel in her Quaker home as she sits in her rickety rocking chair. She describes her saying, " ·nothing but loving words, and gentle moralities, and motherly loving kindness, had come from that chair; -· difficulties spiritual and temporal solved there, - all by one good, loving woman, God bless her!" (Hedrick 178). Rachel optimizes the one voice that all mothers aspire to be like. It is her gentle moralities that move mountains in Stowe's world. Rachel does not speak shrill or loud, she simply navigates her life with humble and modest compassion. Rachel is the key to how slavery should be fought, through a mother's eyes. It is this mother who emanates strength through goodness, and represents the traditional Christian ideas of power through compassion.

Rachel also extends the role of mother to embrace everyone she is near to. Her capacity to love reaches beyond her own family and touches the world around her. When a fellow Quaker woman named Ruth comes to visit, it is completely natural for both women to assume the role of caretaker to their community at large. They reach out to help others who are sick and need assistance. In other words, they are mother figures of a bigger family within their religion. Susan Robeson writes over the ideal vision of matriarchy in discussing Rachel Halliday saying, "The ideal community is of home as nurturing mothers rule through their influence of love rather than by exploitation and competition" (117). The Quaker women are blind to skin color, recognizing everyone as a member of God's family. The men in the Quaker society are equally devout in their compassion to any person who needs help. Stowe draws on her own strong faith to present the remarkable Rachel. When Stowe says Rachel solves the difficulties of both spiritual and temporal problems she conveys the image of Christ- like motherhood.

Of all of Stowe's mothers, perhaps the most conflicting are that of Emily Shelby and Mrs. Bird. These are the gracious upstanding women who become torn between their convictions and what their husbands and society expect from them. Their instincts tell them how unjust slavery is, yet they struggle to remedy the problem because of what the law states. When Emily is confronted with the truth about her husband selling Tom and Harry she lashes out at him saying, "This is God's curse on slavery- It is a sin to hold a slave under laws like ours, -I thought, by kindness, and care, and instruction, I could make the condition of mine better than freedom- fool that I was!" (Hedrick105). Mrs. Shelby is riddled with guilt, because she has played a knowing hand with slavery, yet she stops short of delivering the slaves to freedom. The prospect of losing all material goods over losing Tom and Harry are too much. As a mother she feels responsible for what is happening. She maneuvers a way to allow Eliza to escape with extra time, by foiling the plans of Haley, yet Uncle Tom goes without complaint. For Emily, her maternal instincts are strong, but the rules of debt and society prevail over what she knows to be wrong.

For Mrs. Bird, her loyalties are with her husband, with one exception and that is to protect the escaped slaves. In some respects Mrs. Bird is a manifestation of both Rachel Halliday and Mrs. Shelby. She has the qualities of the meek, soft-spoken mother Rachel, yet the social status of Emily. Her kindly disposition and compassionate ways serve to navigate her husband from the very laws he helped establish, concerning escaped slaves. For Mrs. Bird, any person who has suffered abuse and oppression she will help in any way possible. Mary Bird gives no concern of political affairs and or as her husbands says the, "greater public interests"(Hedrick138). For Mary, cruelty is inexcusable; therefore she will not tolerate it.

Harriet Beecher Stowe utilizes the role of mother as the most familiar voice she knows. As a mother of seven children, she understands the enormous strength between the bond of a mother and her child. When she witnesses the death of her son, she says, "It was at his dying bed and at his grave that I learned what a poor slave mother may feel when her child is torn away from her."(Lauter2370). It became her mission to use her voice as a mother and her skill as a writer to combat slavery. In Uncle Tom's Cabin, she creates heroes out of the heathenish, religious, and innocence of people. Her collections of characters are not restricted to mothers, yet both men and women display the maternal nature of Christianity. She weaves mothers throughout her writings, tying together the voice of reason to the love of humanity. She concludes in Uncle Tom's Cabin by saying, "I beseech you, pity the mother who has all your affections, and not one legal right to protect, guide, or educate, the child of her bosom!"(Hedrick401). The weapon of motherhood is Harriet Beecher Stowe's strongest ally and her most devout companion.

Works Cited

Adams, John R. Harriet Beecher Stowe. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. 1963.

Hedrick, Joan D. Harriet Beecher Stowe A Life .New York: Oxford UP, 1994.

Hedrick, Joan D., ed. The Oxford Harriet Beecher Stowe Reader . New York:

Oxford UP, 1999.

Roberson, Susan. The Stowe Debate Rhetorical Strategies in Uncle Tomâs Cabin . Ed. Mason I. Lowance, Ellen E. Westbrook, and R.C De Prospo. Amherst: University of Massachuetts, 1994.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. " The Minister's Wooing."" Life and Letters of Harriet

Beecher Stowe." The Heath Anthology of American Literature Gen. Ed.

Paul Lauter. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1998.