Аболіціонізм в літературі. Гарріет Бічер-Стоу. (Презентація)

Аболіціонізм в літературі

Abolitionist literature is associated with the socio-political movement for the liberation from slavery. Its founder was R. Hildreth - the author of the novel "The Slave, or Memoirs of Archie Moore", published by the publishing house of the famous abolitionist W. L. Harrison in 1836 (the 2nd supplemented edition appeared under the title "The White Negro, or Memoirs of a Fugitive" ). H. Beecher-Stowe's novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852) is considered the most significant work of abolitionist literature, in which the terrible situation of black slaves is revealed. Motives of abolitionism echoed in the works of outstanding American writers H. W. Longfellow, R. V. Emerson, G. D. Thoreau, W. Whitman, and others. Abolitionism in Literature. An American journalist, author and historian. He is best known for writing his six-volume History of the United States of America covering 1497–1821 and published 1840-1853. Historians consider it a highly accurate political history of the early Republic, but with a strong bias in favor of the Federalist Party and the abolition of slavery/R. Hildreth 1807 – 1865

Poet, publicist, orator, literary critic James Russell Lowell ( 1819-1892) was a passionate abolitionist, edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard (1848-1852). In the satirical poem Biglow Papers (1846), using skillful stylization of letters from a commoner, saturated with folk humor, he ridicules the greed of southern planters. Among the leaders of the abolitionist movement was John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1847), poet, essayist, editor. Coming from a family of farmers, a deeply religious man, a singer of New England and its workers, peasants, a champion of justice, he devoted almost three decades to the fight against slavery. His civic pathos found expression in the book of poems "Voices of Freedom" (1846).

As a public figure, Thoreau protested against what he believed was wrong in US politics. In 1846, protesting against the US-Mexico war, he defiantly refused to pay taxes, for which he was briefly imprisoned. Thoreau actively fought for the rights of African Americans. As a means of struggle, he proposed individual non-violent disobedience. His pamphlet On Civil Disobedience (1849) influenced Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Henry David Thoreau 1817 – 1862 Whitman opposed the extension of slavery in the United States. At first he was opposed to abolitionism, believing the movement did more harm than good. His main concern was that the methods of the abolitionists disrupted the democratic process, as did the refusal of the Southern states to put the interests of the nation as a whole above their own. In 1856, in his unpublished The Eighteenth Presidency, addressing the men of the South, he wrote "you are either to abolish slavery or it will abolish you". Whitman also subscribed to the widespread opinion that even free African-Americans should not vote. Walter Whitman Jr. 1819 – 1892

But her novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852) is considered the most significant work of abolitionist literature, in which the terrible situation of black slaves is revealed. Towards the middle of the 19th century slavery was discussed everywhere. It was at this time that the famous novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" appeared though the author, Harriet Beecher- Stowe, herself did not belong to the Society of Abolitionists. The abolition literature was very pathetic in style. It is considered to be a part of romantic literature. At the same time this literature developed the American social novel by introducing many realistic details about laws and customs of that time.

Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe ( 1811 – 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. She came from a famous religious family . She got a perfect education which was available then only for boys. Later for a long time, the future writer was a teacher in a school for girls, which was founded by her sister.

Harriet Beecher Stowe and her novel “Uncle Tom's Cabin” Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1836 she married Calvin Ellis Stowe who was a professor of theology at the seminary where the father of Harriet - Lyman Beecher was a president. In her literary works she advocated for the women's education, and the destruction of slavery.

Portrait of Stowe , 1853 (National Portrait Gallery)Harriet Beecher Stowe is best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) which depicts the harsh life for African Americans under slavery. In the first year, sales of the book in the United States amounted to 350 000, and in general - 600,000 copies. The novel had 35 editions in England and was translated into 20 foreign languages.

The purpose of the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was to show slavery as a national institution, therefore Harriet Beecher-Stowe had no intention to pass judgment on the South alone, to describe slavery as a vicious system of labour or an economic error. In the preface to her book Beecher-Stowe states that freedom should be a principle, and in a country where freedom has become a privilege, the nation will never be free. The author took pains to show that the crime of slavery was national and that it was as injurious and shameful to the Northern states as to the Southern.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYZExx. W6fq. E&ab_channel=Let%27s. TEACHWho is Uncle Tom ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdf. YUXl4 Ago&ab_channel=Tara. Porath. Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom's Cabin(PBS: Public Broadcasting Service)

The novel became influential in the United States and Great Britain and energized anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. After the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" appeared, it was said by many that the facts represented in the book were exaggerated. Then Harriet Beecher-Stowe collected the facts that had served as material for the novel (newspaper reports, the legal codes of the slave states, and statements by witnesses at trials) and published them under the title "A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin". The novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" took away from the advocates of the slave system any chance to justify the slave-holders. Once and for all it did away with the idea that a slave could be happy with a "kind" master. The story from its very beginning shows that when the "kind" master has fallen into debt, he will not stop at the prospect of selling his "property". He sells his good slave although he had intended to set him free; and the more valuable the slave, the more surely the creditors would seize him.

After the start of the Civil War, Stowe traveled to the capital, Washington, D. C., where she met President Abraham Lincoln on November 25, 1862. Later her son reported that Lincoln greeted her by saying, "so you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war."

What is the main idea of the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin“ ? What can you tell about Harriet Beecher Stowe’s family?How did Harriet Beecher Stowe deflect accusations that the facts represented in the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" were exaggerated ?What does Beecher-Stowe state in the preface to her book?Will you name the representatives of the American society in the 19th century, whose writings express the ideas of abolitionism?