The influcence of uncle toms cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is arguably the most influential novel ever written. It changed the course of U.S. history (For more on the influence of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, see the video, David Reynolds: Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin.). In “Articulating Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Jim O’Loughlin argues that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was so popular and influential because Stowe reflected “existing tropes and public concerns in a compelling narrative form” (O’Loughlin, 2000, p. 594). Moreover, Stowe created powerful images that took on a life of their own, evolving into racist stereotypes.