Dec 31, 2009

Uncle Tom's Cabin | Literary Precedents

Uncle Tom's Cabin is considered by critics to be an excellent example of sentimental fiction, a genre that formed from efforts of abolitionists to outlaw slavery. Attempting to win readers' emotions, the writers of sentimental novels concentrated on life in the home and family, an experience to which most readers, particularly white Northern women, could relate. Extending Christian love to the oppressed characters becomes a major theme in sentimental fiction. In writing her emotional book about slavery, Stowe learned about slave life by talking to former slaves and by reading a...