Cultural Interactions in the 1850s
Alex I. Rebecca M.
1850s Interaction Thesis
Stowe conveys how important it is to look past what is on the outside and to judge people by their actions, and not the colour of their skin. She modeled cultural interactions of the two differing social classes (slaves and whites) by using Tom's life story. Stowe portrayed two different types of people throughout the book: Eva and the other slave owners. Eva represented Stowe's idea of a perfect society - one that didn't judge people by the pigment of their skin and accepted Tom for who he was. The other slave-owning persons treated Tom poorly, which caused him to lose faith and resulted in his eventual death. In both cases, whites were depicted as elevated and above their "property".
Slave running away
Cover of Children's version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
Eva, the protagonists' "white goddess" archetype
Movie poster for "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
Cartoon for "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
Individual Response (Rebecca M.)
2) The most surprising thing in the images was the difference of the treatment of slaves. With the picture on the children's version (see above), two different races are together and happy. However, the picture of the woman treating the slave for no apparent reason is terrible.
Individual Response (Alex I.)
2) What I found to be the most appalling was not in the images, but the images themselves. It's absolutely bonkers to imagine that slavery was a thing that was actually practiced. Nowadays, anything of the sort would be frowned upon (to say the very least).