Authorial Racism in an Anti-Slavery Book?

Over the years, many have criticized Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cain, as racist and ignorant. I found a very interesting article about students commenting on the book, and I want to share a quote from the article. The article is written by a teacher who had his students write opinions on the novel, and one statement stuck out to me. An African American student- who also happens to be a catholic- decided that he is, "uncomfortable with certain of Stowe’s racial assumptions but, in the end, he sees Stowe’s Christian vision trumping racial prejudice."(http://betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com/blacks-students-examine-uncle-tom/). I found this very interesting because I think perspective and lenses play a huge role in how someone goes about reading Uncle Tom's Cabin. Obviously, a Christian is going to react differently to the novel than an atheist, but I found it interesting that for David, the student quoted above, religion trumped some of the racial stereotypes.

I think this detail of racial stereotype and Christian bias can clearly be seen through the scenes with Eva and Topsy. Throughout the novel, the two children are contrasted as a perfect, white, Christian girl, and a black, savage, troublemaker. When talking about Topsy's issues with behavior, St. Clare says, "[Topsy] can't teach her mischief; she might teach it to some children, but evil rolls off Eva's mind like dew off a cabbage-leaf,- not a drop sinks in."(227). What Stowe might be hinting at here is that when someone is with the lord, nothing can touch them, not even the most evil. Baldwin would argue that Stowe's moral values (and Christian values, more specifically) and racial stereotypes seep in and cloud the entire book's message, but Tompkins would state that her writing is just simply writing of women from Stowe's time, and that while people can get upset about it, they do have to acknowledge the novel's extreme popularity and impact during the time it was written. My issue with this quote is that Topsy is constantly contrasted to Eva in order to prove some sort of point. And to go even further, it seems like Miss Ophelia treats Topsy as a piece of work at first saying, "Well, I can't say I thank you for the experiment."(226). But in the end, Stowe is really just trying to convey that religion can set people free and allow for a new perspective. Or in Eva's case, allow evil to roll right off.

I personally think that Baldwin and Tompkins both have valid points. Obviously, Stowe was not immune to the racial prejudice of her time and it is exemplified in her writing; however, I think the fact that she brought in some of her own moral values is not entirely a bad thing because it helped her reach audiences similar to her perspective, especially women. Nobody can deny the novel's impact and I think if sentimentalism is to blame, then hey, that's not such a bad thing. Yes, there are some issues with the novel, but the profound effect is something that catalyzed the civil war and led to lots of improvement. We can't go and shut down the entire novel over a little bias, because it truly made history.