Targeted Marketing: The Secret Success Story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Frederick Douglass’s famous Fourth of July speech was given in 1852. But while Douglass’s political discourse was eloquent, the more decisive antislavery argument of the year came in the form of a novel: Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This one volume moved more than 300,000 northerners to tears for the sake of a black man, and in retrospect, it becomes clear that the key to Stowe’s unparalleled success was her full understanding of her audience. Both Stowe and Douglass faced the challenge of converting the same demographic of the American population, white northern moderates, to abolitionism. But while Douglass (an escaped slave himself) could at best evoke sympathy in his listeners, Stowe had the capability to create bonds of empathy between her targeted readership and her white characters. The channel of emotion our author establishes between her audience and her white protagonists inspires her readers both to feel and, ultimately, to act.
Although Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel evokes a broad spectrum of emotions, the one that proves most haunting for her readers is the emotion of regret. To heighten the impact of “regret” on her audience, Stowe abandons her usual love of foreshadowing to make Augustine St. Clare’s death the only plot twist of her lengthy novel. Augustine’s death is a timely illustration of the unpredictable nature of life, as well as the constant state of insecurity in which all slaves must live. Once an easy-going man who laughed at his cousin Ophelia for her insistence on the “now,” a horrified St. Clare realizes in the last moments of his life that his laziness has left faithful old Tom’s future at the mercy of a brutal institution. The self-loathing that eats away at our benevolent slave owner on his deathbed is a pointed reminder to Stowe’s passive northern readers that they still have a chance for redemption. Though it is too late for St. Clare to substantiate his good intentions with good deeds, Stowe’s readers can save themselves yet — by recognizing Augustine’s death as a call to immediate action.
As the majority of Stowe’s northern audience has had little to no experience with the institution of slavery, another powerful tool of persuasion at Stowe’s disposal is the emotion of disillusionment. The character that most memorably inspires this emotion is Emily Shelby. In the early years of plantation life, Mrs. Shelby wanted to believe that the Shelby household could be a place of security, even a tentative happiness, for the family’s slaves. Harriet Beecher Stowe exposes the fragility of this supposed “haven,” however, when Mrs. Shelby discovers how little she can do to protect little Harry from her husband’s surprising indifference and Haley’s greed. “It is a sin to hold a slave under laws like ours… I thought so still more after I joined the church; but I thought I could gild it over—I thought, by kindness, and care, and instruction, I could make the condition of mine better than freedom—fool that I was!”[1] she exclaims. Mrs. Shelby realizes here that even those masters who keep their slaves in in material comfort, even those masters who participate in the “mild” Kentucky practice of slavery, cannot ignore their complicity in sustaining an institution governed by laws of economy and profit rather than by the laws of God. In the end, this slave mistress’s disillusionment is not just with her husband; it is with the idea of benevolent slavery, or slavery as a “positive good.”[2] And thus Mrs. Shelby’s transformation from sympathetic mistress to ardent abolitionist inclines the white moderates in Stowe’s audience to consider whether they, too, would think differently on the slavery issue if “they knew all [Mrs. Shelby] knew”[3] about this peculiar Southern institution.
As a narrative, Uncle Tom’s Cabin could easily be summarized as a compendium of the most representative slave experiences in antebellum America. As a polemic, however, the novel is anchored in the experiences of its white protagonists, particularly those characters whose revelations would have resonated most with Harriet Beecher Stowe’s targeted readership in the 1850’s. For the task of abolitionists in the years leading up to the Civil War was not to convert godless men like Simon Legree from a proslavery to an antislavery stance. It was to spur individuals like Ophelia into action.
[1] Chapter V, pg. 30
[2] An idea popular amongst southern proslavery arguments from 1830-1860 in antebellum America. Suggested by prominent proslavery orators such as George Fitzhugh and James Henry Hammond.
[3] Chapter V, pg. 30
Frederick Douglass’s famous Fourth of July speech was given in 1852. But while Douglass’s political discourse was eloquent, the more decisive antislavery argument of the year came in the form of a novel: Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This one volume moved more than 300,000 northerners to tears for the sake of a black man, and in retrospect, it becomes clear that the key to Stowe’s unparalleled success was her full understanding of her audience. Both Stowe and Douglass faced the challenge of converting the same demographic of the American population, white northern moderates, to abolitionism. But while Douglass (an escaped slave himself) could at best evoke sympathy in his listeners, Stowe had the capability to create bonds of empathy between her targeted readership and her white characters. The channel of emotion our author establishes between her audience and her white protagonists inspires her readers both to feel and, ultimately, to act.
Although Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel evokes a broad spectrum of emotions, the one that proves most haunting for her readers is the emotion of regret. To heighten the impact of “regret” on her audience, Stowe abandons her usual love of foreshadowing to make Augustine St. Clare’s death the only plot twist of her lengthy novel. Augustine’s death is a timely illustration of the unpredictable nature of life, as well as the constant state of insecurity in which all slaves must live. Once an easy-going man who laughed at his cousin Ophelia for her insistence on the “now,” a horrified St. Clare realizes in the last moments of his life that his laziness has left faithful old Tom’s future at the mercy of a brutal institution. The self-loathing that eats away at our benevolent slave owner on his deathbed is a pointed reminder to Stowe’s passive northern readers that they still have a chance for redemption. Though it is too late for St. Clare to substantiate his good intentions with good deeds, Stowe’s readers can save themselves yet — by recognizing Augustine’s death as a call to immediate action.
As the majority of Stowe’s northern audience has had little to no experience with the institution of slavery, another powerful tool of persuasion at Stowe’s disposal is the emotion of disillusionment. The character that most memorably inspires this emotion is Emily Shelby. In the early years of plantation life, Mrs. Shelby wanted to believe that the Shelby household could be a place of security, even a tentative happiness, for the family’s slaves. Harriet Beecher Stowe exposes the fragility of this supposed “haven,” however, when Mrs. Shelby discovers how little she can do to protect little Harry from her husband’s surprising indifference and Haley’s greed. “It is a sin to hold a slave under laws like ours… I thought so still more after I joined the church; but I thought I could gild it over—I thought, by kindness, and care, and instruction, I could make the condition of mine better than freedom—fool that I was!”[1] she exclaims. Mrs. Shelby realizes here that even those masters who keep their slaves in in material comfort, even those masters who participate in the “mild” Kentucky practice of slavery, cannot ignore their complicity in sustaining an institution governed by laws of economy and profit rather than by the laws of God. In the end, this slave mistress’s disillusionment is not just with her husband; it is with the idea of benevolent slavery, or slavery as a “positive good.”[2] And thus Mrs. Shelby’s transformation from sympathetic mistress to ardent abolitionist inclines the white moderates in Stowe’s audience to consider whether they, too, would think differently on the slavery issue if “they knew all [Mrs. Shelby] knew”[3] about this peculiar Southern institution.
As a narrative, Uncle Tom’s Cabin could easily be summarized as a compendium of the most representative slave experiences in antebellum America. As a polemic, however, the novel is anchored in the experiences of its white protagonists, particularly those characters whose revelations would have resonated most with Harriet Beecher Stowe’s targeted readership in the 1850’s. For the task of abolitionists in the years leading up to the Civil War was not to convert godless men like Simon Legree from a proslavery to an antislavery stance. It was to spur individuals like Ophelia into action.
[1] Chapter V, pg. 30
[2] An idea popular amongst southern proslavery arguments from 1830-1860 in antebellum America. Suggested by prominent proslavery orators such as George Fitzhugh and James Henry Hammond.
[3] Chapter V, pg. 30