Uncle Tom's Cabin helps spark the civil war?

Question

I need sources to support my thesis. I need to suppor ttha Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe helped spark the civil war. thanks!

Answer 1

It shaped public opinion against slavery but i wouldn't say it proked the conflict.

Answer 2

Abe Lincoln and Samuel Clemons both thought that the popularity of the book contributed a spark, of which there were many. Uncle Toms Cabin was a record selling book, and it reviled a picture that most slave owners did not want to relieve. In the north the literacy rate was very high for the time and most of the north had read the book or knew about the book. So the cause was well known. The slavery issue was a train that had been coming down the tracks since the end of the revolution. But that book put the subject on everyone plate, just like watching CNN on the elevnth of September 2001.

Answer 3

Here is a quote from Abraham Lincoln to Ms Stowe

When Stowe met President Lincoln in 1862, he is said to have exclaimed, "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!"

Lincoln thought the book started the war, maybe he was right.

Answer 4

It helped spark abolitionist thought in the north. I don't know as much as to if it sparked the war.

Answer 5

yes

Answer 6

Uncle Tom's Cabin in fact had nothing to do with the war. Slavery had absolutely nothing to do with the cause of the war, and was not an issue until Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (which freed no one, and was only issued as a motivating factor for Union troops who had been losing the war badly). Some facts that should be considered before buying the myth that slavery had anything to do with the cause of the war.

1. Shortly before the war broke out, Robert E. Lee was offered full command of the Union Army. He declined because he refused to invade his own home. The man the Lee eventually surrendered to, Ulysses S. Grant, held slaves throughout the war and until the 13th Amendment.

2. Thomas J. 'Stonewall' Jackson opened the first Sunday school in the country (north or south) for black children, funded with his own money.

3. Lee, Jackson, and Longstreet (3 highest ranking Confederate military officers) repeatedly petitioned the Confederate Congress to abolish slavery.

4. The motion to abolish slavery was considered in the Confederate Congress 3 years before it was considered in the US Congress.

5. 99% of Confederate citizens had no stake in slavery whatsoever. Only the extremely wealthy owned slaves. Hundreds of thousands fought and died to preserve their homes (which had been invaded) and their freedom while the issue of slavery did not affect them in any way.

6. Riots occured in every major northern city due to free blacks being allowed to hold jobs previously held by whites who had gone to war. Riots also occured when the draft was initiated as the vast majority of the population in the north realized that the war was illegal.

7. Not ONE Confederate citizen or soldier was ever tried or convicted of treason. Every court in the north or south (including the Supreme Court) recognized that secession was perfectly legal. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was released after white house lawyers and Supreme Court Justices advised President Johnson (after Lincoln's assassination) that there were no grounds to convict him.

8. Lincoln ordered the arrest and imprisonment of the entire Missouri and Maryland State Legislatures and the Mayor of Baltimore to remove political opposition.

9. Lincoln ordered troops posted at polling places to arrest and imprison those who voted against him. Anyone voting pro-South was given a different colored ballot and was arrested and not allowed to vote.

10. The Lincoln administration created the African nation of Liberia. Lincoln planned to remove all blacks from US soil after the war and send them back to Africa.

11. Prior to the war, Lincoln repeatedly stated his support in Congress of the fugitive slave act, and his support of slavery. In 1858, Lincoln stated specifically: "I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing
about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black
races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or
jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry
with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical
difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever
forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.
And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there
must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other
man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." It was not until after the war began that Lincoln began to say anything against slavery.

12. Ft. Sumter, where the war allegedly began, was South Carolina territory. After South Carolina seceeded, repeated petitions were made to the U.S. government to remove their garrison there from foreign territory. Every effort was made to avoid conflict by the South Carolina and Confederate governments. Lincoln refused to even consider the matter, in spite of his statement in 1860: "It is exceedingly desirable that all parts of this great Confederacy shall be at peace, and in harmony, one with another. Let us Republicans do our part to have it so. Even though much provoked, let us do nothing through passion and ill temper. Even though the southern people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly consider their demands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate view of our duty, we possibly can. Judging by all they say and do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy with us, let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them." Lincoln forced the Confederate government to fire upon Ft. Sumter, then used this as an excuse to invade the entire south.

13. Prison camps for those opposed to Lincoln sprung up all over the north. Tens of thousands of citizens (not soldiers) were imprisoned and/or killed simply because Lincoln saw them as a political threat. There were 7 such camps in Missouri alone.

14. The entire cause of the war, and Lincoln's personal agenda, was supression of state's rights. Prior to the 14th amendment (which established the primacy of the federal government, and passed shortly after the war) the states held more power than the federal government. This is the way the Constitution was written and the way the founding fathers set up the government.

15. Lincoln ordered the arrest and imprisonment of the owners, editors, and writers of 6 northern newspapers that printed material critical of him. He issued orders to the Postmaster General not to deliver any newspapers printing articles critical of him.

Quite simply, slavery was simply an issue that Lincoln latched onto to try and justify invading American homes and killing millions in order to pursue his agenda. US Congressmen who opposed Lincoln were thrown out of the country. Since history is written by the victors, lincoln is seen today as a hero instead of the criminal he was.

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom%27s_Cabin