Tara Phillips
A Cabin, Lincoln, and Lies
An obvious common thread among chapter VII of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address,” and chapter 6 of James Loewen’s book, Lies My Teacher Told Me is the issue of slavery. But upon taking a closer look, there lies perhaps a more inconspicuous vein, which is each author’s plea for the audience in question to wake up and take notice of the of the issue at hand and the question of morality.
Outraged at the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Harriet Beecher Stowe begins her plea to the nation by writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In chapter VII, Stowe reaches out to the conscience of her reader by presenting sympathetic characters such as Eliza and her young son, who are victims of slavery and its injustices. Stowe also introduces characters such as Senator Bird and his wife, who are faced with making a moral decision about whether they should obey the new law and turn Eliza in, or follow their hearts and help her to safety. Stowe makes the reader stop and wonder what one might do when faced with this scenario, and she humanizes Eliza by calling attention to her human motherly instinct to protect her child and keep him with her. In fact, Stowe at some points even directs the narrative toward the reader: “If it were your Harry, mother, or your Willie, that were going to be torn from you by a brutal trader, to-morrow morning… and you had only from twelve o’clock till morning to make good your escape-- how fast could you walk?” (Norton, 1712) At this point and many others, Stowe dramatizes the misfortunes of this poor woman, a slave, who desperately wishes to keep her family safe from harm. Stowe also shows the reader what a difference it makes for a man such as the Senator to change his mind about a written law when faced with the reality of a human situation such as Eliza’s, so much that he ends up going above and beyond to help Eliza and her son to achieve comfort and safe refuge. Chapter VII, as well as the other chapters of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, reaches out to the hearts of its readers to reinforce basic human values in many Americans of the time, and change the minds of those who doubt that blacks are somehow less than human.
Over a decade after Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is released in book form, Abraham Lincoln is elected to his second term as president, and stands to give his Second Inaugural Address, and rather than speaking in a celebratory manner at being elected for a second term, he speaks of the war and about slavery and black Americans… and that the war was fought because of the issue of slavery. “These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war” (1636). Lincoln infuses God and the Bible into his address, and recognizes that “It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces” (1636). His Second Inaugural Address, it seems, is a call to the nation to stop and think about the lives lost in the war and about the impossibility of each side’s requests or prayers being answered. It’s a call for all to stop the war, and perhaps begin to heal, as Lincoln states:
-----“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations” (1636).
Lincoln, in a slightly different manner than Stowe, appeals to the pathos of his audience in order to invoke its basic human values. Although he doesn’t apply any direct sympathy toward slaves in this particular address, he still calls into question the morals of American people, based on common belief in the Bible and God, and asks that they take a look inside themselves, on the issue of tragic war and a divided America.
In 1995, after the authors of history books have had a whole century to filter and distort the truth about what had happened and who the real heroes and victims were, Robert Loewen writes Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. Chapter 6, aside from the obvious fact that it’s largely about Abraham Lincoln and slavery, coincides with the issues included in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and the relevant matters present during Lincoln’s presidency. Loewen brings to light many of the myths and omitted facts about controversial abolitionist heroes such as John Brown, and the fact that much of Lincoln’s notable oratory is omitted from history books or cropped down to fit a particular author’s intended message. Loewen argues that history books tend to paint Lincoln’s views on slavery as mostly indifferent, by failing to include statements such as Lincoln’s advice to Unitarian ministers to “go home and try to bring the people to your views,” because “we shall need all the anti-slavery feeling in the country, and more” (Loewen, 181). Loewen also refers directly to Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, and the fact that many history books exclude it, even though it “made such an impact on Americans that when the president was shot, a month later, farmers in New York and Ohio greeted his funeral train with placards bearing its phrases” (185). Loewen points out that this treatment of Lincoln might be called the “Walt Disney” interpretation, in which an animated statue of Lincoln at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York “spoke for several minutes, choosing ‘his’ words carefully to say nothing about slavery” (185). Another issue that Loewen touches on is the impact that African American actions actually had on white racism, which also seems to be downplayed, if not excluded, from history books. “After they were allowed to fight, the contributions of black troops to the war effort made it harder for whites to deny that blacks were fully human” (186). Loewen recognizes that more modern textbook authors are getting better about including the impact of African Americans on the war and at least mentioning some of the facts, but that only one from his list of books includes how “the existence and success of black troops decreased white racism” (186). Although Loewen has a very different agenda in reaching out to readers, he is in fact asking readers to question some of the contradictions and the fact that history books have left a lot out, and even gotten much of it absolutely wrong.
While Harriet Beecher Stowe set out to get people to sympathize with slaves and those who may have helped slaves, out of pure human kindness, Lincoln struggled with the issue of slavery as well, throughout his presidency and the Civil War. His Second Inaugural Address may not have been a direct reflection of his sympathy to slaves, but it was a plea for America to stop and consider its “sins” and the possibility that it had brought such hardship on itself somehow. And Robert Loewen, all these years later, just wants to set the record straight on what really happened, calling out to Americans to take notice and perhaps rethink history, so that it makes more moral sense, and calling out to writers of history books to get it right, as American youth deserves to know that truth about all of it, including slavery, the Civil War, and Abraham Lincoln.
© 2009 Tara Phillips