Helper Or Stowe?
Two books that caused much startling in the 1850's
Hinton Helper's book
Helper's "The impending crisis of the south: How to make it", a well known book, had been written not because he thought that abolishing slavery was necessary but rather, he saw that keeping slaves gave a bad image to the south. In reality, he himself did not feel slavery was wrong but as people might have thought, he sought what was best for the South. Hinton's novel consisted mostly of statistics and straight facts that were made to support his claim of abolishing slavery. He had a more economic approach rather than social. Attempted to prove that indirectly the non-slave holding whites were the ones who suffered the most from slavery. He was challenging the southerners, stating that they were behind the North in many ways, and showed a couple of numbers that demonstrate how the South would benefit if they abolished slavery. His book caused much trouble and startle, which is why many people think it is the reason for the civil war. His book got banned due to the amount of separation it had caused in the area. Referring back to his other writings, people were able to determine that he was not for the abolishing of slavery from the goodness of his heart but rather because he had much hatred for the blacks and preferred they move back to Africa, showing that he was a big racist, who only truly cared for the political changes of the South.
Harriot Beecher Stowe's novel
The author wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin", which had a more different approach to the readers as she had a sympathetic and emotional technique rather than harsh strong facts. Stowe's book had been written in order to illustrate slavery's effect on families, as to help the ones readers, feel pity for the enslaved characters. The book could have also been referred to as "the moral battle cry for freedom" as it was trying to evoke the message that freedom should not be debated. Her novel also caused citizens to become troubled and question their acts. Lincoln himself said ""So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war", showing how much of an affect her novel had on the people. Uncle Tom's Cabin contributed to the outbreak of the war by making the political and economic issue about slavery a little more personal. Stowe's informal, writing style inspired people in a way that political speeches, could not. In conclusion, The Civil War rose from a mixture of causes including regional conflicts between North and South, economic forces, and humanitarian concerns for the welfare of enslaved people and it is quite unclear as to which of the writers caused the most startle