Dissertation Project That Includes Both an Edition of the Era Version of Stowe’S Text
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© Copyright by Wesley Neil Raabe All rights reserved August 2006 Raabe iii Abstract “Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin: an Electronic Edition of the National Era Version” is a dissertation project that includes both an edition of the Era version of Stowe’s text and a five-chapter dissertation. The edition provides the newspaper version of Stowe’s work in two transcriptions and two image facsimiles. The edition, which observes scholarly standards for accuracy and for encoding electronic data, is based on the paper copy in the University of Virginia Barrett Collection. The edition provides an authoritative record of Stowe’s newspaper text and is a publicly accessible web site. In this dissertation, the textual introduction, chapter 1, orients the electronic edition to textual scholarship, evaluates current resources for the study of Stowe’s text, and illuminates the political and economic forces that influenced serial publication. Chapter 2 provides a revised account of the Era’s promotion and its readers’ reception of Stowe’s work. Chapter 3 explains that Stowe’s newspaper metaphor draws on material publication form to depict the act of reading a newspaper as a futile attempt to escape the concerns of the domestic sphere. Chapter 4 shows that the Era’s coverage and Stowe’s work responded to two political events—the López Expedition against Cuba and the treason trial of Quaker Castner Hanway—as tests of the progress of Christian government. Chapter 5 considers material text and markup theory to show how editorial decisions can influence conceptual models of the text. Also, later installments of the Era text may be revised versions of the Jewett edition text. The book as a publication form has helped to shape the work’s reception, but the serial version should be accorded greater attention. I challenge scholars to reconsider seemingly intrinsic features of Stowe’s text—its center and chapter divisions—as products of book publication form. Extrinsic features of the serial version—installment dates, the Era’s other texts, and the newspaper form—are fundamental for interpretive readings. The negotiation between reader and material publication form extends to modern scholars as we read Uncle Tom’s Cabin in its original publication forms, modern reprints, or an electronic edition. Raabe iv Dissertation Site: <http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/~wnr4c/index.htm> Edition Site: <http://j2.village.virginia.edu:8035/cocoon/utc/> Software Requirements: Mozilla Firefox <http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/> Adobe Flash Player <http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer> Raabe v Table of Contents Abstract ..........................................................................................................................................................iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................v Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................1 The Electronic Edition.................................................................................................................................3 Dissertation Chapters ..................................................................................................................................5 Chapter Summary......................................................................................................................................11 Coda on the Era’s Chapter Numbering .....................................................................................................15 Chapter 1: Editing Uncle Tom’s Cabin: A Textual Introduction...................................................................19 Textual Criticism and Textual Variation...................................................................................................24 The Electronic Edition...............................................................................................................................35 Acquiring Text and Images .......................................................................................................................36 Text and Images: Detailed Description .....................................................................................................40 The Purpose of This Edition......................................................................................................................45 What This Edition Is..................................................................................................................................48 What This Edition Is Not...........................................................................................................................51 Modern Editions and Archival Resources for Uncle Tom’s Cabin ...........................................................52 The Barrett Copy and the National Era: A Bibliographical Description ..................................................65 Installments of Uncle Tom’s Cabin: The Era Responds to the 32nd Congressional Session....................72 Chapter 2: The Era Promotes and Readers Respond: the Periodical Reception of Uncle Tom’s Cabin .......83 The Era’s Subscription Growth and its Promotion of Uncle Tom’s Cabin...............................................88 The Reception of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the Era ......................................................................................97 Chapter 3: Sentiment in the Public Sphere..................................................................................................111 Separate Spheres and the Material Form of the Era................................................................................114 The Newspaper as Metaphor and Senator Burr / Bird.............................................................................119 Sentiment and a Cuban Bond Scheme.....................................................................................................127 The Newspaper and Male Escape to the Public Sphere...........................................................................129 Chapter 4: Stowe and the National Era’s Transformation to Higher Law Principles .................................136 The Higher Law Era of the 1852 Prospectus ..........................................................................................144 Christian Government Debates in the Era...............................................................................................148 Stowe’s Response to Christian Government ...........................................................................................156 The López Expedition .............................................................................................................................172 The Christiana Treason Trials .................................................................................................................183 Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Political Redemption ........................................................................................197 Chapter 5: Circling Back: Reflections on an Edition ..................................................................................207 Appendix A: Newspaper Installment Dates for Uncle Tom’s Cabin...........................................................241 Appendix B: Edition Apparatus ..................................................................................................................244 Editorial Emendations .............................................................................................................................244 End-of-Line Hyphenated Compounds.....................................................................................................246 National Era Type Damage ....................................................................................................................248 Barrett Copy Paper Damage....................................................................................................................250 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................................252 Raabe vi Acknowledgments It is a pleasure to thank the following individuals and members of numerous institutions. Their contributions have made this work far better than it otherwise would have been. While all who follow share credit, the errors are my responsibility. I thank my advisor David Vander Meulen and the English department readers Stephen Railton and Jerome J. McGann. Their mix of skepticism and encouragement at each stage of the electronic edition and for each chapter draft helped me to refine the edition and the argument of the chapters. Their work in editorial, digital, and Stowe scholarship has provided a worthy example. I also thank Michael Holt of the history department. His careful reading of the final draft for the defense saved me from many embarrassments. The University of Virginia Library as an institution and the individuals in it have made the edition possible. I thank Heather Moore Riser and the staff of Special Collections, especially for keeping my work in mind even as they made the transition from Alderman Library’s McGregor Room to the Albert and Harry Small Special Collections Libary. Rare Materials Digital Services is appreciated for their assistance in preparing the newspaper images.