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To: MAKnight
Thanks for writing such a heartistic essay. In my experience, the fastest way to misery is to worry too much about what other people think about you.

Several years ago I was in a room with a dozen black ministers and the subject of Uncle Tom came up. I had just read 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and to my surprise the principal character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's book, Uncle Tom, was in fact, an admirable, Christ-like figure. This was so contrary to the commonly understood meaning of of the epithet "Uncle Tom" that I asked the ministers if they had read the book.

They all said they had (they hadn't) and when I pointed out that Uncle Tom was in fact a wonderful person, well, none of them would listen and I had enough sense to shut up about it.

I recommend you pick up the book sometime and read it. The next time someone calls you an 'Uncle Tom' you can cite the book to them, though, in my experience, it probably won't help.

Good luck and thanks again for taking the time.

19 posted on 12/10/2002 8:56:46 AM PST by Grim
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To: Grim
Uncle Tom was in fact, an admirable, Christ-like figure

Well! I'm glad somebody else finally noticed that. Tom's patient defiance and spiritual independence - "No! no! no! my soul an't yours, Mas'r! You haven't bought it--ye can't buy it! It's been bought and paid for by One that is able to keep it. No matter, no matter, you can't harm me!" - was definitely NOT the "Uncle Tom" of legend.

Problem is, Harriet Stowe's book is very difficult to read by modern standards. It's long, it's often bombastic, the dialogue is laughable (she was born & bred New England and had no idea how people talked in the South, black or white), it's full of overt evangelical preaching (her daddy was a red-hot and controversial preacher after all), and it's extremely sentimental. So hardly anybody has read it (except those of us who read it for History -- my concentration was military history in general and the War (yes, THAT war) in particular.)

But there is no question that Stowe fully intended Tom to be an analogue of Christ as the bringer of redemption through suffering. (She even SAID so in her letters.) Stowe never intended to be "the little lady that started this big war," as Lincoln quipped, she truly believed that demonstration of the goodness and suffering of men and women like Tom and Eliza would turn the hearts of the nation.

31 posted on 12/10/2002 9:24:11 AM PST by AnAmericanMother
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To: Grim
Uncle Tom, was in fact, an admirable, Christ-like figure.

A major ditto on this one. I find it infuriating that a fictional character displaying dignity and courage to the death should be misused this way, when in fact he was more responsible for bringing the humanity of slaves to the forefront of popular thought than any other character before or since. They should be building memorials to the guy. Instead, this.

58 posted on 12/10/2002 11:20:53 AM PST by Billthedrill
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