Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

We all have heard about this book. We have heard that this book stirred the pot and led to the Civil War. Certainly the book was written with the intent of stirring abolitionist sentiment.

It was a book I assigned myself as something I should read but it was a very good book. The story was well told, the characters were all well drawn and people you cared about. I enjoyed this book.

We meet George and Eliza. Eliza being the house slave of the Shelby family who treat their slaves very well. The Shelby's in serious debt find themselves in the position of needing to raise money and being in the position of losing the whole farm or selling a couple of slaves, something they do not wish to do. Faced with these prospects however they do decide they must sell Eliza's son as well as the most respected slave on the premises named Tom. Tom is so honest, so trustworthy, he travels with unlimited restriction and always is where he is supposed to be. The family tells themselves they will buy him back first chance they get but everyone knows what being sold down the river means. Slaves that go to the deep South rarely survive for a long life. Eliza hears the plans and escapes. We see her travails as she attempts to move north to Canada.

We also follow the story of Tom as he moves South being bought and sold a couple of times into entirely different circumstances. Clearly the book was meant to educate that even the " good " slaveholders perpetuated a system by where the " bad " slaveholders could carry out their practices. Northern people that proclaim to be against slavery but still find themselves feeling repulsed by contact with black folks are also castigated.

The book has an overarching religious framing which those of a secular bent might have a problem with. Still it easy to see how this book could convert those who had modest feelings against slavery in general to a strong devotion to doing all they could to repeal it. This book was a life changer for many people secure in thier blinder and cocoons of their normal lives.

It also tells us that correlations will always exist to our current lives, anytime we can justify our actions at the expense of others by stating we do not know how things could be different we are not following the golden rule.

This book is a treasure.