The ideas, thoughts, and words on this non-profit page were compiled from the excellent PBS site, Africans in America, which chronicles America's journey through slavery .  For further study of this pivotal topic, this site is among the best resources.  Some wording and phrases from the original source have been slightly edited / modified for middle school use by Sam Greene.  To view the source articles, navigate to the following links:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html or http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2958.html  

Prior to reading this passage, make sure you've previewed the questions to focus your reading of this article.  This is a reading strategy you can and should use in all your classes.

Slave Narratives and Harriet Beecher Stowe Questions

Anti-slavery writings were significant in the abolitionists' (those who opposed slavery) fight against slavery. Using books, newspapers, pamphlets, poetry, published sermons, and other forms of literature, abolitionists spread their message. David Walker's Appeal, William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator, and Frederick Douglass' The North Star were among the most important abolitionist writings. And then there were the slave narratives -- personal accounts of what it was like to live in bondage. These would give northerners their closest look at slavery and provide an undeniable counter to the pro-slavery arguments and idyllic pictures of slavery described by slaveholders.

The slave narratives were immensely popular with the public. Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass sold 30,000 copies between 1845 and 1860, William Wells Brown's Narrative went through four editions in its first year, and Solomon Northups' Twelve Years a Slave sold 27,000 copies during its first two years in print. Many narratives were translated into French, German, Dutch and Russian.

In addition to publishing their narratives, former slaves became anti-slavery lecturers and went on tour. They told their stories to audiences throughout the North and in Europe. Frederick Douglass was the most famous, but he was joined by others such as Sojourner Truth and William Wells Brown. Others, such as Ellen and William Craft -- a couple who had escaped together using ingenious disguises -- lectured but did not create a written narrative. For white audiences who had perhaps never seen an African American man or woman, the effects of these articulate people telling their stories was electrifying and won many to the abolitionist cause.

The slave narratives provided the most powerful voices contradicting the slaveholders' favorable claims concerning slavery. By their very existence, the narratives demonstrated that African Americans were people with mastery of language and the ability to write their own history. The narratives told of the horrors of family separation, the sexual abuse of black women, and the inhuman workload. They told of free blacks being kidnapped and sold into slavery. They described the frequency and brutality of flogging and the severe living conditions of slave life. They also told exciting tales of escape, heroism, betrayal, and tragedy. The narratives captivated readers, portraying the fugitives as sympathetic, fascinating characters.

The narratives also gave Northerners a glimpse into the life of slave communities: the love between family members, the respect for elders, the bonds between friends. They described an enduring, truly African American culture, which was expressed through music, folktales, and religion. Then, as now, the narratives of ex-slaves provided the world with the closest look at the lives of enslaved African American men, women and children. They were the abolitionist movement's voice of reality.

Though the slave narratives were immensely popular, the anti-slavery document which would reach the broadest audience was written by a white woman named Harriet Beecher Stowe. Stowe was less threatening to white audiences than were black ex-slaves. Her anti-slavery message came in the form of a novel, which was even more accessible to a wide audience. It was called Uncle Tom's Cabin.  

Stowe, though not an active abolitionist herself, had strong anti-slavery feelings. She had grown up in an abolitionist household and had harbored fugitive slaves. She had also spent time observing slavery first-hand on visits to Kentucky, across the river from her Cincinnati home. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, Stowe decided to make a strong statement against the institution of slavery. She had been working as a freelance journalist to supplement her husband's small income and help support their six children. In June 1851 Stowe began publishing Uncle Tom's Cabin in serialized form in the National Era.

The response was enthusiastic, and people clamored for Stowe to publish the work in book form. It was risky business to write or publish an anti-slavery novel in those days, but after a great deal of effort she found a reluctant publisher. Only 5,000 copies of the first edition were printed. They were sold in two days. By the end of the first year, 300,000 copies had been sold in America alone; in England 200,000 copies were sold. The book was translated into numerous languages and was adapted for the theater in many different versions, which played to enthusiastic audiences throughout the world.

Uncle Tom's Cabin had a tremendous impact. The character Uncle Tom is an African American who retains his integrity and refuses to betray his fellow slaves at the cost of his life. His firm Christian principles in the face of his brutal treatment made him a hero to whites. In contrast, his tormenter Simon Legree, the Northern slave-dealer turned plantation owner, enraged them with his cruelty. Stowe convinced readers that the institution of slavery itself was evil, because it supported people like Legree and enslaved people like Uncle Tom. Because of her work, thousands rallied to the anti-slavery cause.

Southerners were outraged, and declared the work to be criminal, slanderous, and utterly false. A bookseller in Mobile, Alabama, was forced out of town for selling copies. Stowe received threatening letters and a package containing the dismembered ear of a black person. Southerners also reacted by writing their own novels. These depicted the happy lives of slaves, and often contrasted them with the miserable existences of Northern white workers.

All in all, the work of abolitionists had a profound effect on nearly everybody's attitudes toward the practice of enslavement. Their work encouraged America to confront the ugly realities of slavery, eventually helping to lead the fragile democracy to its greatest test, the Civil War.

Fugitive Slave Act

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was much stronger than an earlier 1793 fugitive slave law.  Armed with a legal affidavit describing the fugitive, a slave owner or his representative need only convince a federal commissioner that a captive was his property. No court or trial was necessary, and no defense was guaranteed. Particularly infuriating to blacks and other abolitionists was the provision that compelled bystanders to assist in captures or face fines and imprisonment.  Return to the Article.