Race and the American Novel Project: Part 1

Textual Background and Context (pages 410-531)

I chose to summarize the picture on page 415 titled “68 Long Cotton Field Negroes”.

This is a picture of a slave sale that happened in Charleston on February 2^nd, 1860, specifically at 11:00. The slaves ranged from 2 months old to 88 years old. According to the picture, boys/men, ages 18 to 20, were sold for $1,000+ dollars. 8 year old girls were sold for about $720-750. The prices varied between age and skill (such as nurse, coachman, seamstress, or driver), also if the slave was crippled or not.

In response to this picture, I was surprised that slaves only a few months old were being auctioned. I mean, 2 months old? What could the boy possibly do? (His name was Binah). Weren't the slaves supposed to be taking care of the owners? Not the other way around. You would think taking care of children would be of less interest. I know back in the 1860’s when it came to slaves people were greedy and needed as many as possible but a 2 month year old child cannot do anything. I don’t understand why the babies were of value. Unless they were sold along with the mother? But then after they’d be sold the child would be taken away anyway. In response to the understanding of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, slaves were very valuable. I don’t think the novel really discussed any selling of babies…unless the babies were sold along with the mothers.

I also chose to summarize Ethiop’s review of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on pages 502-503.

This review written by Ethiop is short, simple, and straight to the point. The tone of this review is casual, fast-paced, it has a lot of coma usage, and the author uses peculiar language to describe the book and get his point across. Ethiop writes about how Harriet Beecher Stowe has “deserved well of her country, in thus bringing Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (502). The author clearly liked the book and had a lot to say about it.

In response to this review written by Ethiop, I really liked how this was written because there wasn't a lot of breaks between sentences (ie: periods) so I read it as Ethiop had a lot to say about the novel and felt very strongly about it, too. One part that struck me was “…if they do not mend their ways, and change their teaching, in its giant-strength, eject them from society, and consign them to their proper place—Oblivion” (503). I thought this part was very…eye-opening, only because I interpreted the sentence as: if “politicians, demagogues, and robed priests” don’t change their teachings, oblivion will happen. Yikes. In response to how the review helps us understand the novel, I don’t know how to answer that. I mean, Ethiop talks about religious teachings, so maybe the Southern God he writes about isn't what Christianity is about? That there’s a different God in the South than there is in the North?