1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,920 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Lauren 2 00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:15,400 Speaker 1: Vogelbaum here. Uncle Tom's Cabin was America's first bestseller after 3 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:19,040 Speaker 1: being published in eighteen fifty two. This anti slavery novel 4 00:00:19,079 --> 00:00:22,000 Speaker 1: by Harriet Beecher Stowe sold some three hundred and ten 5 00:00:22,079 --> 00:00:24,800 Speaker 1: thousand copies in the United States and at least one 6 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:27,360 Speaker 1: and a half million more abroad, where it was translated 7 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:32,000 Speaker 1: into sixteen languages. But the greatest impact of Uncle Tom's 8 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,680 Speaker 1: Cabin was to awaken its mostly white Northern US readers 9 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:41,120 Speaker 1: to the horrors and immorality of chattel slavery. Before the 10 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:43,680 Speaker 1: article this episode is based on How Stuff Work. Spoke 11 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:47,600 Speaker 1: with Patricia Turner, a professor of African American Studies at UCLA. 12 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:52,159 Speaker 1: She said Stowe was an abolitionist who tapped into the 13 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 1: historical moment. She thought, really strategically, what do I have 14 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:58,600 Speaker 1: to write that will move the people to understand that 15 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:02,279 Speaker 1: it's impossible to be a Christian and to hold slaves. 16 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:05,320 Speaker 1: She knew exactly what kind of hero to create in 17 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:08,120 Speaker 1: Uncle Tom, what kind of situations to put him in, 18 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:13,560 Speaker 1: and how to characterize the slave owners in the book, 19 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:17,920 Speaker 1: which may strike modern readers as overly sentimental. Uncle Tom 20 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:22,039 Speaker 1: is a deeply faithful Christian, a courageous and selfless family 21 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:24,600 Speaker 1: man who first risks his life to save a young 22 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:27,720 Speaker 1: white girl and later gives his life rather than divulge 23 00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:32,400 Speaker 1: the location of two enslaved women who have escaped. Uncle 24 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:35,640 Speaker 1: Tom is beaten to death by his cruel enslaver, but 25 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:39,560 Speaker 1: not before Tom forgives his tormentor a much like Jesus 26 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:44,360 Speaker 1: Christ in the story of his crucifixion. The book and 27 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 1: its hero deserve credit for popularizing the cause of abolition 28 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:51,040 Speaker 1: in the lead up to the Civil War. According to 29 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:55,840 Speaker 1: a well worn but unconfirmed legend, when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe, 30 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:59,120 Speaker 1: he said, so you are the little woman who wrote 31 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:04,320 Speaker 1: the book that stars did this great war. But here's 32 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 1: where the story of Uncle Tom takes an unexpected turn. 33 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,400 Speaker 1: Uncle Tom was the heroic martyr of one of the 34 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:13,959 Speaker 1: best selling books of the eighteen hundreds, but his name 35 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:18,680 Speaker 1: got twisted into a modern day insult. In this sense, 36 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:22,040 Speaker 1: it's most traditionally used by black people to accuse a 37 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: black person of being a trader to their people. So 38 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:31,520 Speaker 1: how did this happen? Turner believes the transformation of Uncle 39 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:35,440 Speaker 1: Tom from hero to trader began during the thousands of 40 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:38,919 Speaker 1: wildly popular stage productions of Uncle Tom's Cabin that toured 41 00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:41,880 Speaker 1: the US and the globe from the eighteen fifties through 42 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:46,280 Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties. Many of these were minstrel shows featuring 43 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:50,560 Speaker 1: white actors wearing blackface, and Uncle Tom's character and the 44 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:54,359 Speaker 1: book's storyline were changed to suit the mostly white working 45 00:02:54,400 --> 00:03:00,560 Speaker 1: class audiences. Stowe's novel was an earnest tragedy, but Turner 46 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:03,560 Speaker 1: said in order to sell tickets, the producers needed to 47 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:06,120 Speaker 1: come up with stage shows that would have music, comedy, 48 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:09,359 Speaker 1: and a happy ending, and Uncle Tom was portrayed as 49 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:13,960 Speaker 1: this extremely deferential, subservient, poorly spoken black man who would 50 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,359 Speaker 1: give the white slave owners or any other white person 51 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:21,320 Speaker 1: what they wanted, which was nothing like the book. The 52 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:25,120 Speaker 1: stage productions also aged Tom into a feeble, white haired 53 00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 1: old man rather than the hard working forty something who 54 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:32,200 Speaker 1: the book character was. Turner says that nineteenth century white 55 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:34,880 Speaker 1: audiences didn't want to see a strong black man on 56 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:40,680 Speaker 1: stage unless he was demonized. Some scholars believe that the 57 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:45,040 Speaker 1: Uncle Tom insult began when post emancipation black Americans were 58 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:49,120 Speaker 1: trying to distance themselves from these subservant and pathetic caricatures 59 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:53,520 Speaker 1: for this new generation struggling for true freedom from oppression, 60 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:56,640 Speaker 1: not just in law, but in life. A black person 61 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,720 Speaker 1: who played into the Uncle Tom stereotypes of the minstrel 62 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 1: show would indeed have been a traitor. But as per 63 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:11,840 Speaker 1: the usual with history, the story isn't that simple. When 64 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:15,960 Speaker 1: literary historian Adinas Spingarn first read Uncle Tom's Cabin in 65 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,240 Speaker 1: graduate school at Harvard, she was struck by the obvious 66 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:23,040 Speaker 1: discrepancy between Uncle Tom's christlike character in the book and 67 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:28,480 Speaker 1: Uncle Tom the racialized slur. After hearing about the transformation 68 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:32,640 Speaker 1: of Tom's character in minstrel shows, Spingarn tracked down hundreds 69 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:35,600 Speaker 1: of newspaper reviews of the many stage productions of Uncle 70 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 1: Tom's Cabin. It turns out he wasn't described in contemporary 71 00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:44,920 Speaker 1: reviews as a subservient buffoon. How Stuff Works also spoke 72 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:49,000 Speaker 1: with Spingarn, She said, in both white and black newspapers, 73 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:52,839 Speaker 1: the character of Uncle Tom was described as virtuous and dignified. 74 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:56,600 Speaker 1: In fact, the objections to him by some conservative white 75 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:59,680 Speaker 1: critics was that he spoke too intelligently and too wisely, 76 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:04,440 Speaker 1: and was too perfect a Christian. These were some of 77 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:08,920 Speaker 1: the same conservative objections to the novel. Furthermore, the stage 78 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:12,520 Speaker 1: productions were still seen as dangerous in former Confederate states 79 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:15,599 Speaker 1: like Kentucky, which banned all touring shows of Uncle Tom's 80 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:20,520 Speaker 1: Cabin as late as nineteen oh six. Spingarn published a 81 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:22,840 Speaker 1: book about all of this in twenty eighteen, a titled 82 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:27,320 Speaker 1: Uncle Tom From Martyr to Trader. In it, she argues 83 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:29,920 Speaker 1: that the character and his name have been a quote 84 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:33,640 Speaker 1: shaped by fundamental debates within the black community over who 85 00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:36,640 Speaker 1: should represent the race and how it should be represented. 86 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:42,800 Speaker 1: It's hard for us twenty first century multimedia humans to 87 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:46,560 Speaker 1: grasp the impact and influence of Uncle Tom's Cabin in 88 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:50,479 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century imagination and how this character became the 89 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:55,240 Speaker 1: very image and emblem of enslaved black Americans. One of 90 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:58,279 Speaker 1: Thomas Edison's first fictional movies was a film version of 91 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:00,960 Speaker 1: Uncle Tom's Cabin, released in nine two oh three, the 92 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:05,600 Speaker 1: same year that he shot The Great Train Robbery. Spingarne 93 00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:09,400 Speaker 1: said Uncle Tom was so ubiquitously understood a stand in 94 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:12,919 Speaker 1: for American slavery that both white and black Americans called 95 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:18,760 Speaker 1: the days of slavery the days of Uncle Tom. The 96 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:21,600 Speaker 1: sheer association of Uncle Tom with the violence and any 97 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:26,599 Speaker 1: humanity of enslavement would have understandably engendered negative connotations, which 98 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:28,960 Speaker 1: were then picked up by a rising tide of black 99 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:32,360 Speaker 1: political leaders in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 100 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:35,960 Speaker 1: Spingarn says the term uncle Tom first took on a 101 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:39,000 Speaker 1: pejorative meeting in the community as early as the eighteen eighties, 102 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:42,320 Speaker 1: when a black lawyer decried what he called a subservient 103 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:46,479 Speaker 1: Uncle Tom type of manhood, adding I despise that as 104 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:52,040 Speaker 1: heartily as anyone. The term gained power as a potent 105 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:55,640 Speaker 1: political epithet in the nineteen teens, was slung by people 106 00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:58,839 Speaker 1: like Reverend George Alexander Maguire, an acolyte of the Black 107 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:03,280 Speaker 1: nationalist Marcus Garfie. Through the nineteen sixties, it remained a 108 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:07,239 Speaker 1: choice insult. Malcolm X lobbed it at Martin Luther King Junior, 109 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:10,600 Speaker 1: and Stokely Carmichael, a leader in the Black Power movement, 110 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:14,040 Speaker 1: used it against Roy Wilkins, then the executive director of 111 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:18,840 Speaker 1: the NAACP. More recently, the term has been wielded against 112 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:22,800 Speaker 1: Black conservatives like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and black 113 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:28,520 Speaker 1: supporters of Donald Trump. The Spingarn seas the long and 114 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:31,480 Speaker 1: strange history of Uncle Tom as part and parcel of 115 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: America's ongoing struggle with its original sin of slavery and 116 00:07:35,320 --> 00:07:40,240 Speaker 1: the ongoing reality of racism. She said, the figure of 117 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:43,120 Speaker 1: Uncle Tom has changed because we've always used him to 118 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,480 Speaker 1: talk about race. What is authentic blackness? What is the 119 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:52,720 Speaker 1: right protest strategy? What should the black image be? As 120 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:56,680 Speaker 1: long as Americans keep grappling with these questions and with racism, 121 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:00,520 Speaker 1: both overt and systemic, Uncle Tom will be right there 122 00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: with us. Today's episode is based on the article the 123 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:11,200 Speaker 1: Journey of Uncle Tom from abolitionist hero to ultimate sellout 124 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:14,760 Speaker 1: on HowStuffWorks dot com, written by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff 125 00:08:14,800 --> 00:08:17,400 Speaker 1: is production by Heart Radio in partnership with howsdiffworks dot 126 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts 127 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:23,760 Speaker 1: from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 128 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:25,679 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.