I began reading Uncle Tom's Cabin a few days before the historic election of Barack Obama.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's work, which some regard as a significant spark to the Civil War, is unsparing in its description of the horrors of slavery. One cannot help but be moved by depictions of families being separated and slaves being maltreated. It's hard to imagine today, but less than 150 years ago, real people with real emotions were treated like unfeeling articles to be bought and sold. I sometimes thought that the book had too many Christian references and passages, but who could blame slaves for pining their hopes in the afterlife if the world they lived in offered nothing but a future of suffering?
America has once more reinvented itself. Not only can the descendants of slaves hope for a better future in their present life, they can even lead the nation that once enslaved them.
No comments:
Post a Comment