Forum on Public Policy Education and Access to Christian Thought in the Writing of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Anna Julia Cooper JoJo Magno, Senior Adjunct of Humanities, Warren County Community College, Washington, NJ Let them give to the slave…the right to read the word of God, and to have such education as will fully develop his intellectual and moral nature; the right of free religious opinion and worship. – Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin A boy…had only to declare a floating intention to study theology and he could get all the support…he needed…[w]hile a self-supporting girl had to struggle on by teaching…and actually to fight her way against positive discouragements to the higher education. – Anna Julia Cooper, ―The Higher Education of Women‖ Abstract In attempting to climb past the racist and sexist barriers which existed in nineteenth-century America, women could look to writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Anna Julia Cooper. Their works not only reflect the conditions of women and African-American women in particular, but also call for access to educational opportunities for these women to provide a gateway to Christian thought. Bible study and theological education extended the idea of women and blacks as God's creatures, possessed of a soul, and rebutted the use of Scripture by Southern white males to promote slavery and segregation. Introduction Reviled as sentimental and considered little more than armchair sociology from a woman whose experience in the South consisted of ―a visit of a few days‘ duration to friends in Kentucky,‖ 1 Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) is in fact full of challenges that go beyond emotion and abolitionist arguments. When read in connection with Stowe‘s other works, and in contrast to the writings of contemporary preachers, Uncle Tom’s Cabin presents a clear call for increased understanding of Christian theology in general and Scripture particularly, for the good of blacks and women in the South. This call was picked up by Anna Julia Cooper, whose A Voice From the South (1892) lauds Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Stowe and frequently associates ideas of education with the social and moral benefits of intelligent Christian understanding. 1. Basil Davenport, review of Goodbye to Uncle Tom, by J.C. Furnas, Book-of-the-Month Club News (1956). 1 Forum on Public Policy The Sanction of the Almighty Why was it necessary for Stowe and later Cooper to call for learned approaches to Christian ideals? Both before Uncle Tom’s Cabin‘s publication and in response to its message, some Southern Christian thinkers used a certain interpretation of Old (and sometimes New) Testament teachings to defend slavery (and later, segregation and disenfranchisement). If Stowe was no expert in Southern life or the true lot of the slave, she was undoubtedly an expert in Christian thought. Her detractors picked, in this area at least, a very poor platform on which to stand against her. It would take all of her considerable knowledge of Christian ideals to rebut the strident moralizing of the pro-slavery preachers, and she therefore concluded that it was in the best interests of all who shared her desire for abolition to also educate themselves in this area. Since women play the most significant role in the education of children, Stowe‘s female characters demonstrate how a command of Scripture is essential in opposing the white males who make the pro-slavery or Jim Crow laws; their education must not be neglected. But above all, Stowe tells us, blacks should learn to read and have access to their Bibles. Like Martin Luther, who objected to the Word of God transmitted to laypeople via a priestly scholar of Latin, Stowe recognized that secondhand knowledge of the Bible was acceptable when nothing else was available, but inferior to direct apprehension of Scripture. She places this sentiment into the mouth of her ―little evangelist,‖ Evangeline ―Eva‖ St. Clare: ―But they ought to read the Bible, mamma, to learn God‘s will.‖ ―O! They can get that read to them all they need.‖ ―It seems to me, mamma, the Bible is for every one to read themselves.‖2 And Uncle Tom himself does the best he can despite his limited literacy: As for Tom‘s Bible, though it had no annotations and helps in margin from learned commentators, still it had been embellished with certain way-marks and guide-boards of 2 Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (New York: Random House, 1981; Bantam Classics, 2003), 299-300. 2 Forum on Public Policy Tom‘s own invention, and which helped him more than the most learned expositions could have.3 Education is not a certain line of defense against misapprehension of God‘s word on slavery and the state of the Southern black. Stowe creates a hierarchy of Biblical education and enlightenment among her white characters. At the lowest order is Eva‘s cousin Henrique, who replies to Eva‘s question, ―Doesn‘t the Bible say we must love everybody?‖ with ―O, the Bible! To be sure, it says a great many such things; but then, nobody ever thinks of doing them, – you know, Eva, nobody does.‖4 Eva‘s mother, Marie St. Clare, moves past Henrique‘s ignorance into a dangerous bit of learning as she parrots her preacher‘s assertion that the text ―He hath made everything beautiful in its season‖ (a conflation of Ecclesiastes 3:1 and 3:11) shows how ―all the orders and distinctions in society came from God…and he applied [the text] so well to all this ridiculous fuss that is made about slavery, and he proved distinctly that the Bible was on our side.‖5 But these half-literate interpretations are easily dismissed by Eva‘s intense faith. Much harder to challenge, and requiring more sophisticated Biblical understanding than that of Tom or Eva, are the messages by the Southern preachers who use Scripture to defend, and even sanctify, slavery. When these are invoked by Stowe‘s more learned white characters, she counters them with intelligent educated women like Miss Ophelia, the New England cousin of St. Clare; Mrs. Bird, the Senator‘s wife in the free state of Ohio; Rachel Halliday, the Quaker woman who runs the Underground Railroad sanctuary; and most notably Mrs. Shelby, the wife of Tom‘s first, humane, owner. Upon her husband‘s reminder of such a preacher‘s sermon, Mrs. Shelby heatedly replies: ―I don‘t want to hear such sermons; I never wish to hear Mr. B. in our church 3. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 164. 4. Ibid., 309. 5. Ibid., 207. 3 Forum on Public Policy again. Ministers can‘t help the evil, perhaps…any more than we can, – but defend it! – it always went against my common sense.‖6 Close reading reveals Stowe‘s unequivocal rejection of Southern male preachers‘ use of Biblical admonition. Largely demonstrated by her female, black, and child characters, but also by her own didactic voice, the message of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of internalization of New Testament ideology. Eva preaches love to Topsy, and succeeds where Ophelia‘s moralizing has failed; Tom preaches patience and empathy to the Shelby slaves who wish that the slave trader Haley would burn in hell forever: ―I‘m afeared you don‘t know what ye‘re sayin‘. Forever is a dre’ful word…you oughtenter wish that ar to any human crittur.‖7 Mrs. Shelby believes that the best Christian lesson she can give her maid Eliza regards how she should love and care for her husband and son: ―I have talked with Eliza about her boy – her duty to him as a Christian mother, to watch over him, pray for him, and bring him up in a Christian way…I have told her that one soul is worth more than all the money in the world.‖8 At times the instruction of the pro-slavery ministers is deemed so pernicious that Stowe must insert her authorial voice and didactic tone in response, for not Eva‘s sincerity, Tom‘s simple piety nor Mrs. Shelby‘s impassioned humanity will suffice. Such a challenge comes when Tom contemplates the suicide of a young slave whose infant has been sold while she is distractedly looking over the railing of the La Belle Rivière to try to catch sight of her husband. Stowe explains Tom‘s thoughts as they might be viewed by the Southern preachers: To him, it looked like something unutterably horrible and cruel, because, poor, ignorant black soul! he had not learned to generalize, and to take enlarged views. If he had only been instructed by certain ministers of Christianity, he might have thought better of it…but 6. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 38 7. Ibid., 61. 8. Ibid., 37. 4 Forum on Public Policy Tom, as we see, being a poor ignorant fellow, whose reading had been confined entirely to the New Testament, could not comfort and solace himself with views like these.9 In Chapter 12, in a conversation in the passengers‘ quarters aboard the La Belle Rivière ensues when one of the children reports that there are slaves in the hold. After a light and sentimental regret is expressed by one of the women and contradicted by another, who claims that ―they are better off than they would be to be free,‖ a preacher begins careful instruction in Scripture: ―It‘s undoubtedly the intention of Providence that the African race should be servants, – kept in a low condition,‖ said a grave-looking…clergyman…― ‗Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be,‘ the scripture says.‖ ―I say, stranger, is that ar what that text means?‖ said a tall man, standing by.