The novel that we are going to analyze is Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stow. This novel had a great impact in the pursuit of abolishing slavery in the middle of the 19th century. During this era Christianity, the self-made man and true womanhood were values that society considered to be great. In fact, during this period the second great awakening had an enormous impression in both black and white people. Both races became involved in reform movements to get rid of prostitution, alcohol and sinners, and eventually abolish slavery. As a result, in my opinion Stow in this novel made it clear that race had the most similarities between black and white followed by gender and class respectively. .
Stow emphasized differences in class the least because class should not determine our religious and political beliefs towards slavery. To begin we will focus on St. Clare who is considered upper class and young master George whom is middle class. Both of these characters show a lot of compassion for the slaves. Stow describes St. Clare as caring and sentimental person towards slaves, for example, "I have the same love that I have know for all kinds of human things-(Pg 257) Similar to young master George, Stow, depicts this character with similar passion and kindness toward slaves, in the following quote young master George is talking to a slave buyer, "you should be ashamed of buying men and women- (Pg 114) In fact, young master George was so close to the slaves that he ate and prayed in their cabins and claimed that when he became of age all slaves in his father's plantation will be free. Next, when comparing the middle and upper class women Stow showed almost no differences. In this case both Eliza and Cassy had similar characteristics in nurture, being pious and not believing in slavery. Eliza was depicted by Stow as a "self-sacrificing mother that will do all for her child", while Cassy was gentle and caring for other slaves.
