Exploring the how geography influences values and ethics in the context of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and the how this trend has endured in 21st century America.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is novel detailing the horrendous plight of the American slave. Stowe provides that narratives of two slaves, Uncle Tom and Eliza as they navigate through escapes, slave traders, and separations. Eliza and her son Harry escape up North by crossing the Ohio river to be with her husband, George. Uncle Tom is sent further south to New Orleans by means of the Mississippi River. Each character’s plight is affected greatly by their geographical location. The North is defined by its progressive, and intellectual society which practices equality amongst men, and sympathy towards to the slave. The South holds dearly onto tradition, a social caste system, and its consistent use of religious justification.
These geographical locations determine economy, infrastructure, political, social, and cultural structures in which its citizens participate. In many instances, this differentiation among the Northern and Southern states still experience the echo of past division in ideology and values. It is curious that these trends endure, while they are no longer precipitated by economical or political survival. In short, this division is no longer by any justification necessary or permanent. The North and South are no longer separate nations, but rather operate within the same nation, economy, and society. Unfortunately, the divide continues.
“What poor, mean trash this whole business of human virtue is! A mere matter, for the most part, of latitude and longitude, and geographical position, acting with natural temperament.” (Chapter 19)
The Illustrated Atlas, and Modern History of the World by R. M. Martin and J. and F. Tallis (New York: J. and F. Tallis, 1851)
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co., 1852; Bartleby.com, 2013.
Exploring American Literature 