While reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, I have received more of a sense of feminism than abolition. Though Stowe proudly professes the evils of slavery, I believe that it is her profound feelings on the place of women within society that envelops Uncle Tom's Cabin. Through the development of the female characters, Stowe enforces the ideal of women as the "Angel of the House", yet asserts their role of importance in the events that surround them. With motherhood as a central theme, Stowe works to indirectly influence her readers to recognize the importance of women within society.
Looking directly at the text, evidence is clear on page 52, when Stowe introduces her readers to Mrs. Shelby for the first time. "Mrs. Shelby was a woman of high class, both intellectually and morally. To that natural magnanimity and generosity of mind which one often marks as characteristic of the women of Kentucky, she added high moral and religious sensibility and principle, carried out with great energy and ability into practical results." She quickly contrasts Mrs. Shelby with her husband, to demonstrate the difference between men and women. "Her husband, who made no professions to any particular religious character, nevertheless reverenced and respected the consistency of her, and stood, perhaps, a little in awe of her opinion. Certain it was that gave her unlimited scope in all her benevolent efforts for the comfort, instruction, and improvement of her servants, though he never took any decided part in them himself."1 Right away, Stowe implies the saintly Christian qualities of the woman to gain the respect of the reader, while the male of the household is classified as an atheist. Through this religious-based opposition, the female is ultimately placed above the male on the hierarchy of the family. This is just one of the many female characters that stand above their male partner within the novel.