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Ghent University Library Ghent University Faculty of Arts and Philosophy The contrast between the North and the South in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and William Gilmore Simms' The Sword and the Distaff. Paper submitted in partial fulfilment of the Supervisor: requirements for the degree of ―Master in de Dr. Michael Boyden Taal- en Letterkunde: Engels‖ by Jeroen Loterman June 2010 Acknowledgements For excellent research assistance, I am grateful to Dr. Michael Boyden, the supervisor of my thesis. I would also like to thank my family for making it possible for me to study at Ghent University. Without their help and support it would not have been possible to deliver this dissertation. Table of contents: 1. Introduction............................................................................................................................1 2. Historical overview of US slavery and the rising conflict between North and South...........3 3. Historical context of The Sword and the Distaff: The Revolutionary War..........................13 4. Harriet Beecher Stowe.........................................................................................................17 5. William Gilmore Simms.......................................................................................................20 6. Theoretical frame: Anti-Uncle Tom Literature....................................................................23 7. Comparison of Uncle Tom‘s Cabin and The Sword and the Distaff...................................27 Choice of the protagonist..............................................................................................27 Position of the slaves.....................................................................................................40 Representation of the different attitudes towards slavery.............................................48 Creation of a social hierarchy in The Sword and the Distaff.......................................57 8. Conclusion............................................................................................................................70 Works cited..............................................................................................................................72 1 1. Introduction During the nineteenth century, life in the United States was largely dominated by the conflict between the North and the South. From the end of the eighteenth century onwards, tensions between both parts of the country increased. The origin of this conflict lied in the introduction of slavery on the American continent. In the course of the nineteenth century, the northern and southern position towards this issue became increasingly poles apart. This augmenting conflict would eventually lead to the bloodiest war in the history of the United States: the Civil War (1861-1865). Consequently, the American literature of this century largely dealt with this dominating conflict. The most important novel defending the northern point of view is unquestionably Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom‘s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly (1852). This anti-slavery novel had a profound effect on attitudes towards African- Americans and slavery in the United States, and was the second best-selling book of that period, following the bible. Immediately after its publication, writers in the South felt the need to respond to Stowe‘s attack on the southern slavery system: the anti-Uncle Tom literature was born. With his novel The Sword and the Distaff; or, Fair, Fat, and Forty William Gilmore Simms redefined this genre of literature by creating a positive image of the southern system instead of attacking the northern accusations like his predecessors did. In my master thesis I will examine how both authors defend their point of view towards slavery. I will illustrate how Simms implicitly and explicitly responds to Stowe‘s novel and how his novel differs from other anti-Uncle Tom literature written during this period. In order to make a profound analysis of both novels, it is essential to give a historic and theoretic frame. Firstly, I will give an overview of slavery in the United States until the nineteenth century. Both novels are massively defined by the historical context in which they are written so that a historic overview is required to understand certain passages in the novels. Secondly, I will briefly sketch the historical context in which The Sword and the Distaff is 2 set. The American Revolutionary War has an important impact on the main characters and, consequently, plays an important role in the story. Furthermore, I will give a short introduction to both authors and discuss in which way both novels stand out in their entire oeuvre. In order to compare both novels with each other, it is essential to give a theoretical overview of the main characteristics of anti-Uncle Tom literature. The core of my dissertation is obviously the comparison of Uncle Tom‘s Cabin and The Sword and the Distaff. In this part I will explain the choice of the protagonists in the light of the position the writers adopt towards slavery. Furthermore, I will pay attention to the way in which the slaveholders and the slaves are represented in both novels. Then, I will demonstrate how both authors incorporate their ideas about slavery in their work. In the last part of my discussion, I will illustrate that Simms‘ novel differs from the other anti-Uncle Tom literature through the positive description of the southern system and the representation of the social hierarchy. Finally, I will give a conclusion in which I will point out the main arguments of my dissertation. 3 2. Historical overview of slavery in America and the rising conflict between North and South Since both novels represent a northern and a southern point of view on slavery, it is essential to give an introduction about slavery in America in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. In the first half of the seventeenth century slavery was introduced in America, and more precisely in the British colony Virginia. Tobacco was immensely popular on the British isles and only a few years after the colonization of Virginia, the British colonizers started to cultivate the tobacco plant. Due to a labor shortage the British introduced the system of indentured servants1 in America. After a few years it immediately became clear that the system did not function well and as a solution slave trade was introduced. In 1619, the first slave ship from Africa arrived in Virginia. The African slaves were transported under wretched conditions and about twenty percent of them already died on the boat. During the seventeenth century about 1.7 million slaves arrived on the American continent. Most of them were sold in the southern regions where the majority of the plantations was located. Slavery was born. In the North the plantation regime was never introduced. The northern farmers could not afford any slaves because it was a huge investment for them and it implied a huge risk. Instead they employed indentured servants to do the work on the farm. Only the owners of big farms were able to hire slaves. In contrast with the slaves in the South, they only worked a part of the year on the field, while they spent the rest of their time in and round the house of their master as domestic servants, stablemen and gardeners. Slaves on the countryside lived and worked in the neighborhood of whites, through which they rapidly learned English and learned about Christianity and the habits of the white people (Berlin 45-48). 1 British prisoners, convicts, political opponents, etc. who were sent to the colonies in America to work on the tobacco plantations. After they finished their long-term contract (ranging four to seven years), they received a piece of land to start their own tobacco plantation. 4 The city slaves in the North were employed in the urban industries — as for example, tanneries, salt mines and iron furnaces — where they comprised the major part of the skilled and unskilled workmen. The iron manufacturers were the biggest employers of the industry slaves and the major slaveholders in the North (Berlin 46). In the cities it was common for the urban elite and the middle class to own slaves. They mainly worked as domestic servants who cleaned the house and the stables, cooked and maintained the gardens. Most of the slaveholders could not provide accommodation for extra people by which they could only have one or two slaves (Berlin 48). The majority of the slaves that worked in the North were coming from the West-Indies and the southern part of the country. The city slaves played an important role in the growth of the northern cities during the eighteenth century. Because of the fact that the slaves lived close to each other, they had a lot of contact and enjoyed a higher form of social autonomy than the slaves on the countryside. In the course of the eighteenth century the demand for workmen increased and less indentured servants came to America. As a result a higher number of slaves were directly transported from Africa to the New Land. These newly imported Africans were responsible for the fact that the Afro-Americans in the North were more open to their African heritage and had an important effect on the Afro- American culture. Since the whites and blacks lived close to each other, these black slaves were forced to adjust themselves to the predominant Euro-American culture in the North (Berlin 51-54). As far as slavery in the South is concerned, it is necessary to make a distinction between two regions:
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