Banned Book - Uncle Tom's Cabin

September 27-October 4 was "Banned Books Week," and in honor of that, Sunday Scribblings offers the topic "Forbidden." My Reader's Anonymous group read the book Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, at times considered a Forbidden Book.

This was a long book, a little daunting at first, but I am so glad I read it. It's a classic, and I am surprised I was never assigned to read it in high school or college, even though I studied English and history. The book is valuable, not only for its historical value, but for its richly crafted characters and intriguing plots (not just one, but several).

Many of us have heard the names over the years... Simon Legree, Topsy, Uncle Tom, Dinah, to name a few. Now, I can put a story with each of these names. And while the novel has fictional elements, Stowe based her characters on real accounts, particularly on the memoirs of Reverend Josiah Henson. And when put in perspective, that this novel was written in 1852 during the pre-Civil War days by a WOMAN, the book becomes that much more significant. The novel presents authentic accounts of slavery in the United States.

Uncle Tom's Cabin was banned in the south shortly after it was published. It was considered abolitionist propaganda. It was even banned in Russia. So controviersial was this novel that, upon meeting Stowe, President Lincoln is credited with saying, "So, this is the little lady who wrote the big book that made this great war." It has also been banned for language concerns much like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In 1984, Uncle Tom's Cabin was forbidden for that reason in Waukegan, Ill. School District.

There is much more than political commentary in Uncle Tom's Cabin. The story has memorable characters and an interesting plot that would make a good story even if it weren't about such a controversial subject. I am so thankful that I have not been forbidden to read books such as this.

Check out another "great" woman! Junie B. Jones! Book Giveaway.