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A Key To Uncle Tom's Cabin

by Harriet Beecher STOWE (1811 - 1896)

46. 4.2.1 – American Church and Slavery, Part 1

After the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which many claim sparked off the Civil War that put an end to legalized slavery in America, there was a great outcry that Stowe had blown her fictional story out of all proportion to the facts. She was viewed by some as an irresponsible monster. Stowe defended herself by painstakingly publishing this Key, describing the actual people, incidents, statutes, court cases, news articles, advertisements, and published facts from whence she drew her material. She didn’t make anything up! Additionally, throughout this key, Stowe vents her own very strong opinions on the shameful practice of slavery, and examines, especially in Part IV, the failure of organized Christendom in both America and Europe to put a stop to the barbarity. "We must repudiate, with determined severity, the blasphemous doctrine of property in human beings." She and her famous brother, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, were very active in the Underground Railroad, raising money and endangering themselves to save countless lives. - Summary by Michele Fry

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Listen next episodes of A Key To Uncle Tom's Cabin:
47. 4.2.2 – American Church and Slavery, Part 2 , 48. 4.2.3 – American Church and Slavery, Part 3 , 49. 4.3 – Martyrdom , 50. 4.4 – Servitude in the Primitive Church compared with American Slavery , 51. 4.5 – Teachings and Condition of the Apostles , 52. 4.6 – Apostolic Teaching on Emancipation , 53. 4.7 – Abolition of Slavery by Christianity , 54. 4.8 – Justice and Equity versus Slavery , 55. 4.9 – Is the System of Religion which is taught the Slave the Gospel? , 56. 4.10 – What is to be done? , 57. APPENDIX