Recently I read an excellent fiction book set in Savanna, Georgia, at the time of the Civil War. The book was written by a Christian author who mentioned in her author’s notes that one of her resources was “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” written by Harriet Beecher Stowe around 1851. Of course, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is a classic, but I had never read it, so I determined that was my next read.
Wow, was I impressed. The use of our beautiful English language became even more so under the author’s command of style and narrative.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was a minister’s daughter, and she wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which is fiction but tells the true essence of slavery, in an attempt to have her Christian brothers and sisters in the northern states understand exactly what was occurring in the South.
As a young woman the author lived in Cincinnati, in the family home just across the river from the slave-holding state of Kentucky, where she saw and heard the effects of slavery. After she married, she and her husband moved to Maine, where she soon realized that the abolition cause she supported in Ohio had little backing among the Christians there, who were so far physically removed from the slave states that they were able to put the horrors of slavery out of their minds and hearts.
There is no wonder this book is considered a classic of American writing. I was very touched by the characters and writing, and I will not soon forget them. Of course, the book was hated and banned in the South and in parts of Europe as well, but none of the websites that I reviewed told how this book was accepted by the Christians to whom Ms. Beecher Stowe directed her written inquiries in the book.
Questions to her readers were threaded throughout the story, and from memory they were something in the form of “Christian mother, have you ever lost a baby to sickness? Then can you imagine having your child pulled from your arms, taken to be sold knowing you will never see them again?”
It would seem to me this tale would strike the heart of all Christian mothers and especially those in the southern states, where the book was banned but read by many. It would be cause for all Christians to search their hearts about God’s view on holding slaves. Over 1 million copies of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” were sold prior to the Civil War, and some reviews credit the book with an insight into slavery that had not been previously put into writing.
As I considered all of this I thought how very brave Ms. Beecher Stowe was to write this book knowing that she was attempting to change the hearts of her neighbors in Maine as much as she was trying to touch hearts in the South. I will have to read her other books to see if she mentions receiving any adverse words from her neighbors and fellow Christians, but I cannot think she continued on with her writing career having received no negative input for taking this unpopular stand against slavery.
The issue of slavery is now, thankfully, in our nation’s past, but reading this magnificent book made me think of the issues we now have in our nation that are accepted as normal when by God’s standards they should be considered offensive to us, knowing that each of us was created by God for the joy of giving Him glory.
We are much less a Christian nation now than we were in the author’s day. Recently a survey stated that only 63% of Americans identify as Christians. Those numbers are down from 2016, when 73.7% claimed to be Christians. Back in 1963 the number was as high as 90%. As we become a nation with fewer Christians we understand that many people no longer see each other as humans created by a Holy God for His purposes. That, of course, affects our nation’s moral values.
For all of us who adhere to the teachings of Jesus it may seem as if we should be writing a book such as this one that touched so many lives in the 1850s – one that would open hearts to God’s truth.
But that book has already been written by the hand of God, and we refer to it as the Holy Bible. If we, with the direction and help of God, share His words with our nonbelieving relatives and neighbors, then they might understand and believe how very valuable each person and soul is to God. Hopefully our nation would then repent and truthfully turn back again to being “One Nation Under God.”
Editor’s note: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City. Email her at writerGoodGod@gmail.com.
