Photo #1: https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/
Mickey Z. -- World News Trust
August XX, 2020
Reminder: There was a long period of time when slavery was believed too deeply entrenched in American culture to ever be abolished.
In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed. Both Southerners and Northerners became legally required to turn in runaway slaves. One year later, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin (or Life Among the Lowly) as a serial in an antislavery paper, The National Era. In 1852, the Boston publishing company Jewett published it as a book and, as they are wont to say, the rest is history.
Widely considered to be the first social protest novel published in the United States (and the first major novel to have a black hero), Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold more copies — with the exception of The Bible — than any book had ever sold in America until that point. Sales reached 300,000 copies in the first year.
Stowe’s graphic depiction of slave life — based on true stories — personalized the issue, reclaiming it from the sanitized domain of courtroom legalese. Her story outraged some and inspired many others. To her critics, she answered with A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1853 to provide documentation that every incident in her book had actually happened.
Upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862, Abraham Lincoln remarked: "So you’re the little woman that wrote the book that made this great war.”
Photo #2: Lincoln meets Stowe by Bruno Lucchesi (2006), a sculpture located at the Lincoln Financial Sculpture Walk at Riverfront in Hartford, CT. (Public Domain)
The movement to end the “peculiar institution” of slavery was made up of individuals willing to recognize that some things in life are bigger than any single one of us. They risked their lives by rescuing slaves and running the Underground Railroad or they did their part by sewing clothes or blankets for escaped slaves or, yes, writing books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The movement needed every last one of these brave humans doing their part — small or large.
Reminder: There was a long period of time when slavery was believed too deeply entrenched in American culture to ever be abolished.
What may seem impossible or irreversible today can be addressed if we're willing to break away from counterproductive behaviors and do the hard work. Each morning, we can accept the challenge to be a better human being, a more responsible earthling. It takes courage to perform a self-examination. It takes courage to accept that almost everything you know just might be wrong but nothing will change until we change our minds.
Photo #3: Mickey Z.
Some things in life are bigger than any single one of us. The anti-slavery movement recognized this. Where are this generation’s visionaries and are they ready to step up and create change? Not ask for change, but actively seek out new approaches and create change — on an urgent, local level and in a big picture, long-term sense.
Discover what unique gifts and skills you can share. Do the work. Keep doing the work. Enjoy doing the work. Seek results instead of praise.
Instead of channeling your ambition toward, say, climbing a mountain, running a marathon, or garnering more social media followers, what greater goal could any of us ever aim for than to leave the planet much better off than how we found it?
Just as a strong, brave, smart woman like Harriet Beecher Stowe did in 1851.
Mickey Z. can be found here. He is also the founder of Helping Homeless Women - NYC, offering direct relief to women on the streets of New York City. To help him grow this project, CLICK HERE and make a donation right now. And please spread the word!
