Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States, so much in the latter case that the novel intensified the sectional conflict leading to the American Civil War.
Stowe, a Connecticut-born preacher at the Hartford Female Academy and an active abolitionist, focused the novel on the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of other characters—both fellow slaves and slave owners—revolve. The sentimental novel depicts the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love can overcome something as destructive as enslavement of fellow human beings.
Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible. It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States alone. The book's impact was so great that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe at the start of the Civil War, Lincoln is often quoted as having declared, "So this is the little lady who made this big war."
The book, and even more the plays it inspired, also helped create a number of stereotypes about black people, many of which endure to this day. These include the affectionate, dark-skinned "mammy"; the "pickaninny" stereotype of black children; and the Uncle Tom, or dutiful, long-suffering servant faithful to his white master or mistress. In recent years, the negative associations with Uncle Tom's Cabin have, to an extent, overshadowed the historical impact of the book as a "vital antislavery tool."
References for the novel
An engraving of Harriet Beecher Stowe from 1872, based on an oil painting by Alonzo Chappel.
Stowe, a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Academy and an active abolitionist, wrote the novel as a response to the 1850 passage of the second Fugitive Slave Act (which punished those who aided runaway slaves and diminished the rights of fugitives as well as freed blacks[citation needed]). Much of the book was composed in Brunswick, Maine, where her husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe, taught at his alma mater, Bowdoin College.
Stowe was partly inspired to create Uncle Tom's Cabin by the autobiography of Josiah Henson, a black slave who lived and worked on a 3,700 acre (15 km²) tobacco plantation in North Bethesda, Maryland owned by Isaac Riley. Henson escaped slavery in 1830 by fleeing to the Province of Upper Canada (now Ontario), where he helped other fugitive slaves arrive and become self-sufficient, and where he wrote his memoirs. Stowe eventually acknowledged that Henson's writings inspired Uncle Tom's Cabin. When Stowe's work became a best-seller, Henson republished his memoirs as The Memoirs of Uncle Tom, and traveled extensively in the United States and Europe. Stowe's novel lent its name to Henson's home—Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site, near Dresden, Ontario—which since the 1940s has been a museum. The actual cabin where Henson lived while he was a slave still exists in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is now a part of National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program.
American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses, a volume co-authored by Theodore Dwight Weld and the Grimké sisters, is also a source of some of the novel's content. Stowe also said she based the novel on a number of interviews with escaped slaves during the time when Stowe was living in Cincinnati, Ohio, across the Ohio River from Kentucky, a slave state. In Cincinnati the Underground Railroad had local abolitionist sympathizers and was active in efforts to help runaway slaves on their escape route from the South.
Stowe mentioned a number of the inspirations and sources for her novel in A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853). This non-fiction book was intended to verify Stowe's claims about slavery. However, later research indicated that Stowe did not actually read many of the book's cited works until after the publication of her novel.
Publication
Uncle Tom's Cabin first appeared as a 40-week serial in National Era, an abolitionist periodical, starting with the June 5, 1851 issue. Because of the story's popularity, the publisher John Jewett contacted Stowe about turning the serial into a book. While Stowe questioned if anyone would read Uncle Tom's Cabin in book form, she eventually consented to the request.
Fullpage illustration by Hammatt Billings for Uncle Tom's Cabin (First Edition: Boston: John P. Jewett and Company, 1852). The engraving shows Eliza telling Uncle Tom that she has been sold and is running away to save her child.
Convinced the book would be popular, Jewett made the unusual decision (for that time) to have six fullpage illustrations by Hammatt Billings engraved for the first printing. Published in book form on March 20, 1852, the novel soon sold out its complete print run. A number of other editions were soon printed (including a deluxe edition in 1853, featuring 117 illustrations by Billings).
In the first year of publication, 300,000 copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin were sold. The book was translated into all major languages, and eventually became the second best-selling book after the Bible. A number of the early editions carried an introduction by Rev James Sherman, a Congregational minister in London noted for his abolitionist views.
Uncle Tom's Cabin sold equally well in Britain, with the first London edition appearing in May 1852 and selling 200,000 copies. In a few years over 1.5 million copies of the book were in circulation in Britain, although most of these were pirated copies (a similar situation occurred in the United States).
Plot summary
Eliza escapes with her son, Tom sold "down the river"
The book opens with a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby facing the loss of his farm because of debts. Even though he and his wife, Emily Shelby, believe that they have a benevolent relationship with their slaves, Shelby decides to raise the needed funds by selling two of them—Uncle Tom, a middle-aged man with a wife and children, and Harry, the son of Emily Shelby’s maid Eliza—to a slave trader. Emily Shelby hates the idea of doing this because she had promised her maid that her child would never be sold; Emily's son, George Shelby, hates to see Tom go because he sees the man as his friend and mentor.
Simon Legree assaulting Uncle Tom.
When Eliza overhears Mr. and Mrs. Shelby discussing plans to sell Tom and Harry, Eliza determines to run away with her son. The novel states that Eliza made this decision because she fears losing her only surviving child (she had already miscarried two children). Eliza departs that night, leaving a note of apology to her mistress.
While all of this is happening, Uncle Tom is sold and placed on a riverboat, which sets sail down the Mississippi River. While on board, Tom meets and befriends a young white girl named Eva. When Eva falls into the river, Tom saves her. In gratitude, Eva's father, Augustine St. Clare, buys Tom from the slave trader and takes him with the family to their home in New Orleans. During this time, Tom and Eva begin to relate to one another because of the deep Christian faith they both share.
Eliza's family hunted, Tom's life with St. Clare
During Eliza's escape, she meets up with her husband George Harris, who had run away previously. They decide to attempt to reach Canada. However, they are now being tracked by a slave hunter named Tom Loker. Eventually Loker and his men trap Eliza and her family, causing George to shoot Loker. Worried that Loker may die, Eliza convinces George to bring the slave hunter to a nearby Quaker settlement for medical treatment.
Back in New Orleans, St. Clare debates slavery with his Northern cousin Ophelia who, while opposing slavery, is prejudiced against black people. St. Clare, however, believes he is not biased, even though he is a slave owner. In an attempt to show Ophelia that her views on blacks are wrong, St. Clare purchases Topsy, a young black slave. St. Clare then asks Ophelia to educate her.
After Tom has lived with the St. Clares for two years, Eva grows very ill. Before she dies she experiences a vision of heaven, which she shares with the people around her. As a result of her death and vision, the other characters resolve to change their lives, with Ophelia promising to throw off her personal prejudices against blacks, Topsy saying she will better herself, and St. Clare pledging to free Uncle Tom.
Tom sold to Simon Legree
Fullpage illustration by Hammatt Billings for Uncle Tom's Cabin (First Edition: Boston: John P. Jewett and Company, 1852). Cassy, another of Legree's slaves, is shown ministering to Uncle Tom after his whipping.
Before St. Clare can follow through on his pledge, however, he dies after being stabbed while entering a New Orleans tavern. His wife reneges on her late husband's vow and sells Tom at auction to a vicious plantation owner named Simon Legree. Legree (a transplanted northerner) takes Tom to rural Louisiana, where Tom meets Legree's other slaves, including Emmeline (whom Legree purchased at the same time). Legree begins to hate Tom when Tom refuses Legree's order to whip his fellow slave. Legree beats Tom viciously, and resolves to crush his new slave's faith in God. Despite Legree's cruelty, however, Tom refuses to stop reading his Bible and comforting the other slaves as best he can. While at the plantation, Tom meets Cassy, another of Legree's slaves. Cassy was previously separated from her son and daughter when they were sold; unable to endure the pain of seeing another child sold, she killed her third child.
At this point Tom Loker returns to the story. Loker has changed as the result of being healed by the Quakers. George, Eliza, and Harry have also obtained their freedom after crossing into Canada. In Louisiana, Uncle Tom almost succumbs to hopelessness, as his faith in God is tested by the hardships of the plantation. However, he has two visions, one of Jesus and one of Eva, which renew his resolve to remain a faithful Christian, even unto death. He encourages Cassy to escape, which she does, taking Emmeline with her. When Tom refuses to tell Legree where Cassy and Emmeline have gone, Legree orders his overseers to kill Tom. As Tom is dying, he forgives the overseers who savagely beat him. Humbled by the character of the man they have killed, both men become Christians. Very shortly before Tom's death, George Shelby (Arthur Shelby's son) arrives to buy Tom’s freedom, but finds he is too late.
Final section
On their boat ride to freedom, Cassy and Emmeline meet George Harris' sister and accompany her to Canada. Once there, Cassy discovers that Eliza is her long-lost daughter who was sold as a child. Now that their family is together again, they travel to France and eventually Liberia, the African nation created for former American slaves. There they meet Cassy's long-lost son. George Shelby returns to the Kentucky farm and frees all his slaves. George tells them to remember Tom's sacrifice and his belief in the true meaning of Christianity.
Major characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom
Illustration of Tom and Eva by Hammatt Billings for the 1853 deluxe edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Uncle Tom, the title character, was initially seen as a noble, long-suffering Christian slave. In more recent years, however, his name has become an epithet directed towards African-Americans who are accused of selling out to whites (for more on this, see the creation and popularization of stereotypes section). Stowe intended Tom to be a "noble hero" and praiseworthy person. Throughout the book, far from allowing himself to be exploited, Tom stands up for his beliefs and is grudgingly admired even by his enemies.
Eliza
A slave (personal maid to Mrs. Shelby), she escapes to the North with her five-year old son Harry after he is sold to Mr. Haley. Her husband, George, eventually finds Eliza and Harry in Ohio, and emigrates with them to Canada, then France and finally Liberia.
The character Eliza was inspired by an account given at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati by John Rankin to Stowe's husband Calvin, a professor at the school. According to Rankin, in February, 1838 a young slave woman had escaped across the frozen Ohio River to the town of Ripley with her child in her arms and stayed at his house on her way further north.
Eva
Eva, whose real name is Evangeline St. Clare, is the daughter of Augustine St. Clare. Eva enters the narrative when Uncle Tom is traveling via steamship to New Orleans to be sold, and he rescues the 5 or 6 year-old girl from drowning. Eva begs her father to buy Tom, and he becomes the head coachman at the St. Clare plantation. He spends most of his time with the angelic Eva, however.
Eva constantly talks about love and forgiveness, even convincing the dour slave girl Topsy that she deserves love. She even touches the heart of her sour aunt, Ophelia.
Eventually Eva falls terminally ill. Before dying, she gives a lock of her hair to each of the slaves, telling them that they must become Christians so that they may see each other in Heaven. On her deathbed, she convinces her father to free Tom, but because of circumstances the promise never materializes.
A similar character, also named Little Eva, later appeared in the children's novel Little Eva: The Flower of the South by Philip J. Cozans (although this ironically was an anti-Tom novel). To a certain degree, the Little Eva portrayed by Cozans could be the same Eva introduced by Stowe.
Simon Legree
A cruel slave owner—a Northerner by birth—whose name has become synonymous with greed. His goal is to demoralize Tom and break him of his religious faith; he eventually beats Tom to death out of frustration for his slave's unbreakable belief in God. The novel reveals that, as a young man, he had abandoned his sickly mother for a life at sea, and ignored her letter to see her one last time at her deathbed. He sexually exploits Cassie, who despises him, and later sets his designs on Emmeline.
Other characters
There are a number of secondary and minor characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Among the more notable are:
* Arthur Shelby, Tom's master in Kentucky. Shelby is characterized as a "kind" slaveowner and a stereotypical Southern gentleman.
* Emily Shelby, Arthur Shelby's wife. A deeply religious woman who strives to be a kind and moral influence upon her slaves. She is appalled when her husband sells his slaves with a slave trader. As a woman, she has no legal way to stop this, as all property belongs to her husband.
* George Shelby, Arthur and Emily's son, who sees Tom as a "friend" and as the perfect Christian.
* Augustine St. Clare, Tom's second owner and father of Eva. Of the slaveowners in the novel, the most sympathetic character. St. Clare is complex, often sarcastic, with a ready wit. After a rocky courtship he marries a woman he grows to hold in contempt, though he is too polite to let it show. St. Clare recognizes the evil in chattel slavery, but is not willing to relinquish the wealth it brings him. After his daughter's death he becomes more sincere in his religious thoughts, and starts to read the Bible to Tom. He plans on finally taking action against slavery by freeing his slaves, but his good intentions ultimately come to nothing.
* Topsy, A "ragamuffin" young slave girl. When asked if she knows who made her, she professes ignorance of both God and a mother, saying "I s'pect I growed. Don't think nobody never made me." She is transformed by Little Eva's love. During the early-to-mid 1900s, several doll manufacturers created Topsy and Topsy-type dolls. The phrase "growed like Topsy" (later "grew like Topsy"; now somewhat archaic) passed into the English language, originally with the specific meaning of unplanned growth, later sometimes just meaning enormous growth.
* Miss Ophelia, is Augustine St. Clare's pious, hard-working, abolitionist cousin from Vermont. She displays the ambiguities towards African-Americans felt by many Northerners at the time. She argues against the institution of slavery yet, at least initially, feels repulsed by the slaves as individuals.
Major themes
"The fugitives are safe in a free land." Illustration by Hammatt Billings for Uncle Tom's Cabin, First Edition. The image shows George Harris, Eliza, Harry, and Mrs. Smyth after they escape to freedom.
Uncle Tom's Cabin is dominated by a single theme: the evil and immorality of slavery. While Stowe weaves other subthemes throughout her text, such as the moral authority of motherhood and the redeeming possibilities offered by Christianity, she emphasizes the connections between these and the horrors of slavery. Stowe pushed home her theme of the immorality of slavery on almost every page of the novel, sometimes even changing the story's voice so she could give a "homily" on the destructive nature of slavery (such as when a white woman on the steamboat carrying Tom further south states, "The most dreadful part of slavery, to my mind, is its outrages of feelings and affections—the separating of families, for example."). One way Stowe showed the evil of slavery was how this "peculiar institution" forcibly separated families from each other.
Because Stowe saw motherhood as the "ethical and structural model for all of American life," and also believed that only women had the moral authority to save the United States from the demon of slavery, another major theme of Uncle Tom's Cabin is the moral power and sanctity of women. Through characters like Eliza, who escapes from slavery to save her young son (and eventually reunites her entire family), or Little Eva, who is seen as the "ideal Christian", Stowe shows how she believed women could save those around them from even the worst injustices. While later critics have noted that Stowe's female characters are often domestic clichés instead of realistic women, Stowe's novel "reaffirmed the importance of women's influence" and helped pave the way for the women's rights movement in the following decades.
Stowe's puritanical religious beliefs show up in the novel's final, over-arching theme, which is the exploration of the nature of Christianity and how she feels Christian theology is fundamentally incompatible with slavery. This theme is most evident when Tom urges St. Clare to "look away to Jesus" after the death of St. Clare's beloved daughter Eva. After Tom dies, George Shelby eulogizes Tom by saying, "What a thing it is to be a Christian." Because Christian themes play such a large role in Uncle Tom's Cabin—and because of Stowe's frequent use of direct authorial interjections on religion and faith—the novel often takes the "form of a sermon."
Style
Eliza crossing the icy river, in an 1881 theater poster
Uncle Tom's Cabin is written in the sentimental and melodramatic style common to 19th century sentimental novels and domestic fiction (also called women's fiction). These genres were the most popular novels of Stowe's time and tended to feature female main characters and a writing style which evoked a reader's sympathy and emotion. Even though Stowe's novel differs from other sentimental novels by focusing on a large theme like slavery and by having a man as the main character, she still set out to elicit certain strong feelings from her readers (such as making them cry at the death of Little Eva). The power in this type of writing can be seen in the reaction of contemporary readers. Georgiana May, a friend of Stowe's, wrote a letter to the author stating that, "I was up last night long after one o'clock, reading and finishing Uncle Tom's Cabin. I could not leave it any more than I could have left a dying child." Another reader is described as obsessing on the book at all hours and having considered renaming her daughter Eva. Evidently the death of Little Eva affected a lot of people at that time, because in 1852 alone 300 baby girls in Boston were given that name.
Despite this positive reaction from readers, for decades literary critics dismissed the style found in Uncle Tom's Cabin and other sentimental novels because these books were written by women and so prominently featured, "women's sloppy emotions." One literary critic said that had the novel not been about slavery, "it would be just another sentimental novel," while another described the book as "primarily a derivative piece of hack work." In The Literary History of the United States, George F. Whicher called Uncle Tom's Cabin "Sunday-school fiction", full of "broadly conceived melodrama, humor, and pathos."
However, in 1985 Jane Tompkins changed this view of Uncle Tom's Cabin with her book In Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction. Tompkins praised the style so many other critics had dismissed, writing that sentimental novels showed how women's emotions had the power to change the world for the better. She also said that the popular domestic novels of the 19th century, including Uncle Tom's Cabin, were remarkable for their "intellectual complexity, ambition, and resourcefulness"; and that Uncle Tom's Cabin offers a "critique of American society far more devastating than any delivered by better-known critics such as Hawthorne and Melville."
Reactions to the novel
Uncle Tom's Cabin has exerted an influence equaled by few other novels in history. Upon publication, Uncle Tom's Cabin ignited a firestorm of protest from defenders of slavery (who created a number of books in response to the novel) while the book elicited praise from abolitionists. As a best-seller, the novel heavily influenced later protest literature.
Contemporary and world reaction
Immediately upon publication, Uncle Tom's Cabin outraged people in the American South. The novel was also roundly criticized by slavery supporters.
Acclaimed Southern novelist William Gilmore Simms declared the work utterly false, while others called the novel criminal and slanderous. Reactions ranged from a bookseller in Mobile, Alabama who was forced to leave town for selling the novel to threatening letters sent to Stowe herself (including a package containing a slave's severed ear). Many Southern writers, like Simms, soon wrote their own books in opposition to Stowe's novel (see the Anti-Tom section below).
Some critics highlighted Stowe's paucity of life-experience relating to Southern life, saying that it led her to create inaccurate descriptions of the region. For instance, she had never set foot on a Southern plantation. However, Stowe always said she based the characters of her book on stories she was told by runaway slaves in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Stowe lived. It is reported that, "She observed firsthand several incidents which galvanized her to write [the] famous anti-slavery novel. Scenes she observed on the Ohio River, including seeing a husband and wife being sold apart, as well as newspaper and magazine accounts and interviews, contributed material to the emerging plot."
In response to these criticisms, in 1853 Stowe published A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, an attempt to document the veracity of the novel's depiction of slavery. In the book, Stowe discusses each of the major characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin and cites, "real life equivalents" to them while also mounting a more, "aggressive attack on slavery in the South than the novel itself had." Like the novel, A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin was also a best-seller. It should be noted, though, that while Stowe claimed A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin documented her previously consulted sources, she actually read many of the cited works only after the publication of her novel.
Despite these criticisms, the novel still captured the imagination of many Americans. According to Stowe's son, when Abraham Lincoln met her in 1862 Lincoln commented, "So this is the little lady who started this great war." Historians are undecided if Lincoln actually said this line, and in a letter that Stowe wrote to her husband a few hours after meeting with Lincoln no mention of this comment was made. Since then, many writers have credited this novel with focusing Northern anger at the injustices of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Law and helping to fuel the abolitionist movement. Union general and politician James Baird Weaver said that the book convinced him to become active in the abolitionist movement.
Uncle Tom's Cabin also created great interest in England. The first London edition appeared in May 1852, and sold 200,000 copies. Some of this interest was because of British antipathy to America. As one prominent writer explained, "The evil passions which 'Uncle Tom' gratified in England were not hatred or vengeance [of slavery], but national jealousy and national vanity. We have long been smarting under the conceit of America — we are tired of hearing her boast that she is the freest and the most enlightened country that the world has ever seen. Our clergy hate her voluntary system — our Tories hate her democrats — our Whigs hate her parvenus — our Radicals hate her litigiousness, her insolence, and her ambition. All parties hailed Mrs. Stowe as a revolter from the enemy." Charles Francis Adams, the American minister to Britain during the war, argued later that, "Uncle Tom's Cabin; or Life among the Lowly, published in 1852, exercised, largely from fortuitous circumstances, a more immediate, considerable and dramatic world-influence than any other book ever printed."
The book has been translated into almost every language, including Chinese (with translator Lin Shu creating the first Chinese translation of an American novel) and Amharic (with the 1930 translation created in support of Ethiopian efforts to end the suffering of blacks in that nation). The book was so widely read that Sigmund Freud reported a number of patients with sado-masochistic tendencies who he believed had been influenced by reading about the whipping of slaves in Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Literary significance and criticism
As the first widely read political novel in the United States, Uncle Tom's Cabin greatly influenced development of not only American literature but also protest literature in general. Later books which owe a large debt to Uncle Tom's Cabin include The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.
Despite this undisputed significance, the popular perception of Uncle Tom's Cabin is as, "a blend of children's fable and propaganda." The novel has also been dismissed by a number of literary critics as, "merely a sentimental novel," while critic George Whicher stated in his Literary History of the United States that "Nothing attributable to Mrs. Stowe or her handiwork can account for the novel's enormous vogue; its author's resources as a purveyor of Sunday-school fiction were not remarkable. She had at most a ready command of broadly conceived melodrama, humor, and pathos, and of these popular cements she compounded her book."
Other critics, though, have praised the novel. Edmund Wilson stated that, "To expose oneself in maturity to Uncle Tom's Cabin may … prove a startling experience." Jane Tompkins states that the novel is one of the classics of American literature and wonders if many literary critics aren't dismissing the book because it was simply too popular during its day.
Over the years scholars have postulated a number of theories about what Stowe was trying to say with the novel (aside from the obvious themes, such as condemning slavery). For example, as an ardent Christian and active abolitionist, Stowe placed many of her religion's beliefs into the novel. Some scholars have stated that Stowe saw her novel as offering a solution to the moral and political dilemma that troubled many slavery opponents: whether engaging in prohibited behavior was justified in opposing evil. Was the use of violence to oppose the violence of slavery and the breaking of proslavery laws morally defensible? Which of Stowe's characters should be emulated, the passive Uncle Tom or the defiant George Harris? Stowe's solution was similar to Ralph Waldo Emerson's: God's will would be followed if each person sincerely examined his principles and acted on them.
Scholars have also seen the novel as expressing the values and ideas of the Free Will Movement. In this view, the character of George Harris embodies the principles of free labor, while the complex character of Ophelia represents those Northerners who condoned compromise with slavery. In contrast to Ophelia is Dinah, who operates on passion. During the course of the novel Ophelia is transformed, just as the Republican Party (three years later) proclaimed that the North must transform itself and stand up for its antislavery principles.
Feminist theory can also be seen at play in Stowe's book, with the novel as a critique of the patriarchal nature of slavery. For Stowe, blood relations rather than paternalistic relations between masters and slaves formed the basis of families. Moreover, Stowe viewed national solidarity as an extension of a person's family, thus feelings of nationality stemmed from possessing a shared race. Consequently she advocated African colonization for freed slaves and not amalgamation into American society.
The book has also been seen as an attempt to redefine masculinity as a necessary step toward the abolition of slavery. In this view, abolitionists had begun to resist the vision of aggressive and dominant men that the conquest and colonization of the early 19th century had fostered. In order to change the notion of manhood so that men could oppose slavery without jeopardizing their self-image or their standing in society, some abolitionists drew on principles of women's suffrage and Christianity as well as passivism, and praised men for cooperation, compassion, and civic spirit. Others within the abolitionist movement argued for conventional, aggressive masculine action. All the men in Stowe's novel are representations of either one kind of man or the other.
Creation and popularization of stereotypes
Illustration of Sam from the 1888 "New Edition" of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The character of Sam helped create the stereotype of the lazy, carefree "happy darky."
In recent decades, scholars and readers have criticized the book for what are seen as condescending racist descriptions of the book's black characters, especially with regard to the characters' appearances, speech, and behavior, as well as the passive nature of Uncle Tom in accepting his fate. The novel's creation and use of common stereotypes about African Americans is important because Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel in the world during the 19th century. As a result, the book (along with images illustrating the book and associated stage productions) had a major role in permanently ingraining these stereotypes into the American psyche.
Among the stereotypes of blacks in Uncle Tom's Cabin are:
* The "happy darky" (in the lazy, carefree character of Sam);
* The light-skinned tragic mulatto as a sex object (in the characters of Eliza, Cassy, and Emmeline);
* The affectionate, dark-skinned female mammy (through several characters, including Mammy, a cook at the St. Clare plantation).
* The Pickaninny stereotype of black children (in the character of Topsy);
* The Uncle Tom, or African American who is too eager to please white people (in the character of Uncle Tom). Stowe intended Tom to be a, "noble hero." The stereotype of him as a, "subservient fool who bows down to the white man" evidently resulted from staged "Tom Shows," over which Stowe had no control.
In the last few decades these negative associations have to a large degree overshadowed the historical impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin as a "vital antislavery tool." The beginning of this change in the novel's perception had its roots in an essay by James Baldwin titled "Everybody’s Protest Novel." In the essay, Baldwin called Uncle Tom’s Cabin a, "very bad novel" which was also racially obtuse and aesthetically crude.
In the 1960s and '70s, the Black Power and Black Arts Movements attacked the novel, saying that the character of Uncle Tom engaged in "race betrayal," saying that Tom made slaves out to be worse than slave owners. Criticisms of the other stereotypes in the book also increased during this time.
In recent years, however, scholars such as Henry Louis Gates Jr. have begun to reexamine Uncle Tom's Cabin, stating that the book is a, "central document in American race relations and a significant moral and political exploration of the character of those relations."
Anti-Tom literature
In response to Uncle Tom's Cabin, writers in the Southern United States produced a number of books to rebut Stowe's novel. This so-called Anti-Tom literature generally took a pro-slavery viewpoint, arguing that the issues of slavery as depicted in Stowe's book were overblown and incorrect. The novels in this genre tended to feature a benign white patriarchal master and a pure wife, both of whom presided over child-like slaves in a benevolent extended-family-style plantation. The novels either implied or directly stated that African Americans were a child-like people unable to live their lives without being directly overseen by white people.
Among the most famous anti-Tom books are The Sword and the Distaff by William Gilmore Simms, Aunt Phillis's Cabin by Mary Henderson Eastman, and The Planter's Northern Bride by Caroline Lee Hentz, with the last author having been a close personal friend of Stowe's when the two lived in Cincinnati. Simms' book was published a few months after Stowe's novel and it contains a number of sections and discussions disputing Stowe's book and her view of slavery. Hentz's 1854 novel, widely-read at the time, but now largely forgotten, offers a defense of slavery as seen through the eyes of a northern woman—the daughter of an abolitionist, no less—who marries a southern slave owner.
In the decade between the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin and the start of the American Civil War, between twenty and thirty anti-Tom books were published. Among these novels are two books titled Uncle Tom's Cabin As It Is (one by W.L. Smith and the other by C.H. Wiley) and a book by John Pendleton Kennedy. More than half of these Anti-Tom books were written by white women, with Simms commenting at one point about the "Seemingly poetic justice of having the Northern woman (Stowe) answered by a Southern woman."
Dramatic adaptations
Tom shows
Main article: Tom Shows
1886 poster for "Stetson's Uncle Tom's Cabin"
Even though Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, far more Americans of that time saw the story as a stage play or musical than read the book. Eric Lott, in his book Uncle Tomitudes: Racial Melodrama and Modes of Production, estimates that at least three million people saw these plays, ten times the book's first-year sales.
Copyright issues
Given the lax copyright laws of the time, stage plays based on Uncle Tom's Cabin—"Tom shows"—began to appear while the story itself was still being serialized. Stowe refused to authorize dramatization of her work because of her puritanical distrust of drama (although she did eventually go to see George Aiken's version, and, according to Francis Underwood, was "delighted" by Caroline Howard's portrayal of Topsy). Stowe's refusal left the field clear for any number of adaptations, some launched for (various) political reasons and others as simply commercial theatrical ventures.
There were then no international copyright laws. The book and plays were translated into several languages; Ms. Stowe saw no money, as much as "three fourths of her just and legitimate wages."
On the plays
All Tom shows appear to have incorporated elements of melodrama and blackface minstrelsy. These plays varied tremendously in their politics—some faithfully reflected Stowe's sentimentalized antislavery politics, while others were more moderate, or even pro-slavery. Many of the productions featured demeaning racial caricatures of Black people, while a number of productions also featured songs by Stephen Foster (including "My Old Kentucky Home," "Old Folks at Home," and "Massa's in the Cold Ground"). The best-known Tom Shows were those of George Aiken and H.J. Conway.
The many stage variants of Uncle Tom's Cabin "dominated northern popular culture… for several years" during the 19th century and the plays were still being performed in the early 20th century.
One of the unique and controversial variants of the Tom Shows was Walt Disney's 1933 Mickey's Mellerdrammer. Mickey's Mellerdrammer is a United Artists film released in 1933. The title is a corruption of "melodrama", thought to harken back to the earliest minstrel shows, as a film short based on a production of Uncle Tom's Cabin by the Disney characters. In that film, Mickey Mouse and friends stage their own production of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Mickey Mouse was already black-colored, but the advertising poster for the film shows Mickey dressed in blackface with exaggerated, orange lips; bushy, white sidewhiskers made out of cotton; and his now trademark white gloves.
Film adaptations
Uncle Tom's Cabin has been made into a number of film versions. Most of these movies were created during the silent film era (with Uncle Tom's Cabin being the most-filmed story of that time period). This was due to the continuing popularity of both the book and Tom shows, meaning audiences were already familiar with the characters and the plot, making it easier for the film to be understood without spoken words.
The first film version of Uncle Tom's Cabin was one of the earliest full-length movies (although full-length at that time meant between 10 and 14 minutes). This 1903 film, directed by Edwin S. Porter, used white actors in blackface in the major roles and black performers only as extras. This version was evidently similar to many of the Tom Shows of earlier decades and featured a large number of black stereotypes (such as having the slaves dance in almost any context, including at a slave auction).
Still from Edwin S. Porter's 1903 version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was one of the first full length movies. The still shows Eliza telling Uncle Tom that she has been sold and that she is running away to save her child.
In 1910, a three-reel Vitagraph Company of America production was directed by J. Stuart Blackton and adapted by Eugene Mullin. According to The Dramatic Mirror, this film was "a decided innovation" in motion pictures and "the first time an American company" released a dramatic film in 3 reels. Until then, full-length movies of the time were 15 minutes long and contained only one reel of film. The movie starred Florence Turner, Mary Fuller, Edwin R. Phillips, Flora Finch, Genevieve Tobin and Carlyle Blackwell, Sr.
At least four more movie adaptations were created in the next two decades. The last silent film version came in 1927. Directed by Harry A. Pollard (who'd played Uncle Tom in a 1913 release of Uncle Tom's Cabin), this two-hour movie spent more than a year in production and was the third most expensive picture of the silent era (at a cost of $1.8 million). Black actor Charles Gilpin was originally cast in the title role, but was fired after the studio decided his "portrayal was too aggressive." James B. Lowe then took over the character of Tom. One difference in this film from the novel is that after Tom dies, he returns as a vengeful spirit and confronts Simon Legree before leading the slave owner to his death. Black media outlets of the time praised the film, but the studio—fearful of a backlash from Southern and white film audiences—ended up cutting out controversial scenes, including the film's opening sequence at a slave auction (where a mother is torn away from her baby). The story was adapted by Pollard, Harvey F. Thew and A. P. Younger, with titles by Walter Anthony. It starred James B. Lowe, Virginia Grey, George Siegmann, Margarita Fischer, Mona Ray and Madame Sul-Te-Wan.
For several decades after the end of the silent film era, the subject matter of Stowe's novel was judged too sensitive for further film interpretation. In 1946, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer considered filming the story, but ceased production after protests led by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
A movie poster from Kroger Babb's 1965 production of Uncle Tom's Cabin
A German language version, Onkel Toms Hütte, directed by Géza von Radványi, appeared in 1965 and was presented in the United States by exploitation film presenter Kroger Babb. The most recent film version was a television broadcast in 1987 directed by Stan Lathan and adapted by John Gay. It starred Avery Brooks, Phylicia Rashad, Edward Woodward, Jenny Lewis, Samuel L. Jackson and Endyia Kinney.
In addition to film adaptations, versions of Uncle Tom's Cabin have featured in a number of animated cartoons, including Walt Disney's Mickey's Mellerdrammer (1933), which features the classic Disney character performing the play in blackface with exaggerated, orange lips; the Bugs Bunny cartoon Southern Fried Rabbit (1953), where Bugs disguises himself as Uncle Tom and sings My Old Kentucky Home in order to cross the Mason-Dixon line; Uncle Tom's Bungalow (1937), a Warner Brothers cartoon supervised by Tex Avery; Eliza on Ice (1944), one of the earliest Mighty Mouse cartoons produced by Paul Terry; and Uncle Tom's Cabaña (1947), an eight-minute cartoon directed by Tex Avery.
Uncle Tom's Cabin has also influenced a large number of movies, including Birth of a Nation. This controversial 1915 film deliberately used a cabin similar to Uncle Tom's home in the film's dramatic climax, where several white Southerners unite with their former enemy (Yankee soldiers) to defend what the film's caption says is their "Aryan birthright." According to scholars, this reuse of such a familiar cabin would have resonated with, and been understood by, audiences of the time.
Among the other movies influenced by or making use of Uncle Tom's Cabin include Dimples (a 1936 Shirley Temple film), Uncle Tom's Uncle, (a 1926 Our Gang (The Little Rascals) episode), its 1932 remake Spanky, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I (in which a ballet called "Small House of Uncle Thomas" is performed in traditional Siamese style), and Gangs of New York (in which Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis's characters attend an imagined wartime adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin).
外文名稱 Onkel Toms Hütte
更多外文片名： Uncle Tom's Cabin
導演： Géza von Radványi
主演：
John Kitzmiller
赫伯特·羅姆 Herbert Lom
國傢/地區： 德國
上映 1965年
劇情
19世紀中葉，美國北方肯塔基州農場主謝爾比傢有一名忠心維護主人利益的黑奴，大傢都稱呼他為湯姆叔叔。因主人在股票市場投機失敗而破産，主人衹好將此湯姆等十名黑奴價賣給奴隸販子利格裏抵債。一起乘船運回南方。在船上一個得了不治之癥的小女孩，特別喜歡湯姆叔叔唱歌，就堅决請求她的父親聖剋萊爾買了下湯姆叔叔、由於聖剋萊爾主張解放黑奴，利格裏等奴隸主對他恨之入骨，隧下毒手將他暗殺，從此，湯姆叔叔又落入奴隸販子利格裏手中。湯姆叔叔為解救不願充當利格裏玩物的奴女卡茜，被車撞得重傷致命。他在生命奄奄一息的時刻，終於悟出了衹有鬥爭纔會有自由的真理。他督促黑奴們盡快離開這人間地獄，於是黑奴們砸開水閘在白人的幫助下，與利格裏展開鬥爭。這時湯姆叔叔躺在他的小屋裏，眼看着利格裏自認失敗落魄離去，對自己黑人同胞能取得勝利，以及有許多白人都站在他們一邊而無限欣慰地離開了人間。
小說背景
《湯姆叔叔的小屋：卑賤者的生活》（Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly），又譯作《黑奴籲天錄》、《湯姆大伯的小屋》，是美國作傢哈裏特·比徹·斯托（斯托夫人）於1852年發表的一部反奴隸製小說。這部小說中關於非裔美國人與美國奴隸制度的觀點曾産生過意義深遠的影響，並在某種程度上激化了導致美國內戰的地區局部衝突。《湯姆叔叔的小屋》，波士頓版
出生於康涅狄格州的斯托夫人，是哈特福德女子學院（Hartford Female Academy）的一名教師，同時，她也是一位積極的廢奴主義者。全書圍繞着一位久經苦難的黑奴湯姆叔叔的故事展開，並描述了他與他身邊人——均為奴隸與奴隸主——的經歷。這部感傷小說深刻地描繪出了奴隸制度殘酷的本質；並認為基督徒的愛可以戰勝由奴役人類同胞所帶來的種種傷害。
《湯姆叔叔的小屋》這部小說是19世紀最暢銷的小說（以及第二暢銷的書，僅次於最暢銷的書《聖經》）並被認為是刺激1850年代廢奴主義興起的一大原因。在它發表的頭一年裏，在美國本土便銷售出了三十萬册。《湯姆叔叔的小屋》對美國社會的影響是如此巨大，以致在南北戰爭爆發的初期，當林肯接見斯托夫人時，曾說到：“你就是那位引發了一場大戰的小婦人。”後來，這句話為衆多作傢競相引用。
《湯姆叔叔的小屋》以及受其啓發而寫作出的各種劇本，還促進了大量黑人刻板印象的産生，不少的這些形象在當今都為人們所熟知。譬如慈愛善良的黑人保姆、黑小孩的原型、以及順從、堅忍並忠心於白人主人的湯姆叔叔。最近幾十年來，《湯姆叔叔的小屋》中的這些消極成分，已在一定程度上弱化了這本書作為“重要的反奴隸製工具”的歷史作用。
小說的起源
出生於康涅狄格州的斯托夫人，是哈特福德女子學院（Hartford Female Academy）的一名教師，也是一名積極的廢奴主義者。1850年，美國通過了第二部《逃亡奴隸法》，將協助奴隸逃亡定為非法行為予以懲處，並限縮逃亡者與自由黑人所擁有的權利；為了回應這部法律，斯托夫人寫成了這部小說。小說的絶大部分都是在緬因州的不倫瑞剋鎮完成的；斯托夫人的丈夫卡爾文·斯托（Calvin Stowe）在任教於當地他的母校鮑登大學。
1872年的一幅斯托夫人的雕版圖
《湯姆叔叔的小屋》的一部分創作靈感來自喬賽亞·亨森的自傳。亨森是一位黑人男性，他曾是奴隸主艾薩剋·賴利（Isaac Riley）所擁有的一名奴隸，生活並勞作於馬裏蘭州北貝塞斯達地區的3,700英畝（15平方千米）煙草種植園中。1830年，亨森逃到了上加拿大省（即今安大略省），並擺脫了奴隸身份；此後，他協助了一些逃亡奴隸抵達該地，自己也過上了自給自足的生活，並寫出了他的回憶錄。斯托夫人自己也曾明確地承認，是亨森的作品啓發了她，從而讓她寫出了《湯姆叔叔的小屋》。當斯托夫人的書聞名於世後，亨森以《湯姆叔叔的回憶錄》（The Memoirs of Uncle Tom）為名再度發表了他的自傳，並在美國與歐洲得到了廣泛的傳播。斯托夫人在她的小說中藉用了亨森傢的名稱。亨森的傢在1940年代成為了一座博物館，即今日安大略省德纍斯頓附近的湯姆叔叔的小屋歷史遺跡。而亨森在奴隸時期所居住的那間小屋，至今還遺存在馬裏蘭州的蒙哥馬利縣境內。
西奧多·德懷特·韋爾德與格裏姆剋·西斯特斯合著的《美國的奴隸制度：千人目擊證詞》（American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses）一書，亦被確認為小說的部分材料來源。斯托夫人也表示說，當她居住在與蓄奴的肯塔基州一河相隔的俄亥俄州辛辛那提市時，她曾采訪過大量逃亡至該地的奴隸，而此中獲得的材料後來亦成為了其小說的基礎。在辛辛那提市，有着一些地下鐵路秘密網絡的廢奴主義支持者，他們積極於幫助那些從南方逃亡的奴隸。
在1853年發表的《湯姆叔叔小屋題解》一書中，斯托夫人提到了寫作這部小說的大量靈感與材料來源。斯托夫人發表《題解》這部寫實作品的原因，是為了支持她對奴隸制度惡行的主張。不過，後來的研究也指出，在出版《湯姆叔叔的小屋》之前，斯托夫人實際上並未閱讀過《題解》中提到的不少作品。
《湯姆叔叔的小屋》具有19世紀感傷小說與家庭小說（亦稱做女性小說）中常見的感性與戲劇性的風格。在斯托夫人的時代，這一類型的小說是最為流行的小說：它們趨嚮於去描述女性主角，其寫作風格常能喚起讀者的同情與感動盡。管如此，《湯姆叔叔的小屋》與其他的感傷小說所不同的是，前者將其中心焦點集中於奴隸製這種大型話題，並以一名男性作為故事的主角；不過，斯托夫人亦試圖去引出讀者的某種強烈情感（譬如讓讀者為小伊娃的死而哭泣）。這一寫作類型的力量可通過同時代讀者的反應顯現出來。斯托夫人的一位朋友喬治亞娜·梅（Georgiana May）曾經寫信給她談到：“我昨晚子夜醒來，耗盡終夜讀完了這本書。此後，我再也不能望着小孩子垂死而無動於衷。”。據描述，另一名讀者完全地着迷於這本小說，他甚至考慮把自己的女兒改名為伊娃。顯而易見的是，小伊娃的死對當時的許多讀者造成了影響：單在1852年，波士頓便有300名女嬰被取名為伊娃。
儘管在讀者中得到了肯定，但在其發表後的幾十年裏，文藝評論傢們都否定了《湯姆叔叔的小屋》以及其他感傷小說中展現出的這種風格，因為這類小說是由女性寫成，並過於突出地描寫了“女性多愁善感的情感”一位文藝評論傢認為，如果這部小說與奴隸製沒有關聯，“它不過就是一部普通的感傷小說”。另外一名評論傢則將這本書描述為“基本上就是一堆苦力勞作出的毫無意義的碎片”。喬治·惠徹（George Whicher）在他的《美國文學史》（Literary History of the United States）中對這本書嗤之以鼻，將之斥為“周日學校小說”，並充滿着“露骨描述的情節、幽默與悲傷”。
然而，在1985年時，簡·湯普金斯（Jane Tompkins）在她劃時代的《傑出的設計：美國小說的文化成果》（In Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction）一書中改變了這一觀點。湯普金斯盛贊了其他評論傢拒絶承認的感傷風格，並提出，感傷小說展現了女性的情感擁有改善世界的力量。她還認為，包括《湯姆叔叔的小屋》在內的流行於19世紀的家庭小說，有着“理智的復雜性、雄心與機智”；而《湯姆叔叔的小屋》“對美國社會的批判要比霍桑與梅爾維爾這些更知名小說傢的批評更具毀滅性。”
儘管後來關於《湯姆叔叔的小屋》風格的觀點已有所改變，但由於這部小說的寫法與絶大多數現代小說大相徑庭，今日的讀者往往會覺得這部作品的內容晦澀、做作、“甚至老掉牙了”。
為了反擊《湯姆叔叔的小屋》，美國南方的作傢們發表數量衆多的作品以反駁斯托夫人的小說。所謂的反湯姆文學，一般都站在維護奴隸制度的立場上，認為斯托夫人筆下描述的奴隸制度是誇張不實的。這一類的作品大都展現了傢長式的白人奴隸主與其純潔的妻子，他們都十分樂善好施，在其家庭式的種植園裏照顧着那些孩子般的奴隸們。在這些小說中，非裔美國人都被含蓄或直接地描述為孩子般的人，離開白人的監護就無法獨立生活。
最著名的幾本反湯姆作品有威廉·吉爾摩·西姆斯的《劍與梭》、瑪麗·亨德森·伊斯門的《菲莉絲阿姨的小屋》以及卡羅琳·李·亨茨的《種植園主的北方新娘》[88]，其中最後一位作者在辛辛那提時曾與斯托夫人有過一段親密的朋友關係。西姆斯的書出版於斯托夫人小說發表的幾個月後，其中的許多章節與議論都圍繞着辯駁斯托夫人的書及其觀點而展開。亨茨的小說出版於1854年，在當時曾廣受傳閱，但現在基本上已被遺忘了；這本小說通過描述一位嫁給南方奴隸主的北方婦女——一名廢奴主義者的女兒——的所見所聞，為奴隸制度進行了辯護。
在《湯姆叔叔的小屋》出版到南北戰爭爆發前的近十年間，總共有20到30部反湯姆作品面世。其中有兩本書的書名為《這纔是湯姆叔叔的小屋》（Uncle Tom's Cabin As It Is，其一為W·L·史密斯所作，另一為C·H·威利作），此外，還有一本是約翰·彭德爾頓·肯尼迪的作品。有超過一半的反湯姆作品都由白人女性寫成，西姆斯曾為此諷刺說：“讓一位南方女性去反駁北方女性（指斯托夫人）看起來是善惡應得的報應。”
戲劇改編
1886年《斯特森的〈湯姆叔叔的小屋〉》海報舞臺演出
儘管《湯姆叔叔的小屋》是19世紀最暢銷的小說，但更多的美國人是通過舞臺劇和音樂劇來瞭解到整個故事的，而不是通過原書。埃裏剋·洛特（Eric Lott）在他的《托米圖德斯叔叔：種族話劇與作品模式》（Uncle Tomitudes: Racial Melodrama and Modes of Production）中估計，至少有三百萬人曾觀看過這類演出，其數目是小說發表頭一年裏發售量的十倍之多。
由於當時並不嚴格的著作權法律，基於《湯姆叔叔的小屋》的舞臺作品在小說還在連載時便已經出現了。斯托夫人拒絶親自將小說改編為戲劇，因為她對戲劇有着清教徒式的不信任（儘管她在後來去看過喬治·艾肯改編的版本，而據弗朗西斯·安德伍德（Francis Underwood）描述，她對卡羅琳·霍華德（Caroline Howard）飾演的托普西感到十分“欣喜”）。斯托夫人的這一拒絶，讓舞臺作品的領域得以被衆多改編作品占據，部分改編作品的目的是為了實現（各種各樣的）政治原因，但其餘的衹不過是為了進行商業投機。
情節劇與黑臉雜秀是這些舞臺作品的共有元素。這些作品的政見有着巨大的差異——有一部分如實地反映了斯托夫人傷感的反奴隸制度的政見，另一部分則比較中性，甚至還有一些維護奴隸制度政見的作品。許多作品都蓄意地對黑人進行了種族諷刺；還有不少作品采用了斯蒂芬·大衆特創作的歌麯（其中有“我的肯塔基故鄉”、“故鄉的親人”與“Massa's in the Cold Ground”）。最著名的一出舞臺作品是由喬治·艾肯與H·J·康韋（H.J. Conway）合編的 。
在19世紀，《湯姆叔叔的小屋》的許多舞臺改編作品“在好幾年裏……支配了北方的流行文化”，到了20世紀早期，有一部分劇作依然還在演出中。
電影改編
《湯姆叔叔的小屋》有着許多的電影版本。大部分的這些影片都攝製於默片時代（在當時，《湯姆叔叔的小屋》是被拍成電影次數最多的故事）。由於小說與舞臺作品持續地受到歡迎，許多觀衆都已經十分熟悉劇情中的角色，因此他們在觀看不帶對話的默片時並不會感到十分睏難。
《湯姆叔叔的小屋》的第一個電影版本是最早的“全長”電影之一（在當時，“全長”意味着電影的長度大約在10到14分鐘之間）。這部1903年的電影由埃德溫·斯坦頓·波特導演，由白人演員扮裝黑人主角，而黑人演員則衹充當臨時演員。這一版本與先前的許多舞臺作品都十分類似；此外，這部電影還描繪出了許多黑人的刻板印象（譬如在幾乎每個場合都由黑奴在跳舞，包括一場黑奴拍賣會上）。
1910年，美國維塔格拉夫製片廠製作了由J·斯圖爾特·布萊剋頓導演並由尤金·馬林（Eugene Mullin）改編的三捲長電影。據《戲劇之鏡》（The Dramatic Mirror）上的描述，這部電影是電影史上的“一次明顯的革新”，也是“第一次一傢美國公司”發佈三盤膠捲的戲劇電影。在當時，一部一盤膠捲的“全長”影片長約15分鐘。這部電影由弗洛倫斯·圖爾納、瑪麗·富勒、埃德溫·R·菲利普斯（Edwin R. Phillips）、弗洛拉·芬奇、熱納維耶芙·托賓與小卡萊爾·布萊剋韋爾主演。
在其後20年裏，至少有4部以上的電影改作問世。最後的一部默片版本發行於1927年，由哈裏·A·波拉德（他曾在1913年版的《湯姆叔叔的小屋》中飾演湯姆叔叔）導演。這部2小時長的電影花費了一年多的時間進行製作，也是默片時代預算花費第三多的電影（計180萬美元）。在這部電影中，黑人演員查爾斯·悉尼·吉爾平本是原定的湯姆叔叔飾演者，但卻由於他的“表演過於叛逆”而被製片廠取消了表演資格，並為詹姆斯·B·洛所取代。這部電影與小說的一個不同的情節是，當湯姆叔叔死後，他變成了一個復仇的幽靈，並最終導致了賽門·勒格裏的死亡。當時的黑人電臺曾盛贊這部電影，但懼怕引起南方與白人電影觀衆激烈反應的製片廠，最終剪掉了爭議性的情景，包括影片開始時的黑奴拍賣會（其中，一位母親被迫與自己的幼子生生分離）。這部電影的劇本由波拉德、哈維·F·休（Harvey F. Thew）與A·P·揚格改編，字幕由沃爾特·安東尼撰寫；主要演員有：詹姆斯·B·洛、弗吉尼亞·格雷、喬治·西格曼、瑪加麗塔·菲捨爾、莫娜·雷與蘇泰文女士。
在默片時代結束後的幾十年間，這部小說中的主題因被認為太過敏感而未被繼續拍成電影。1946年，米高梅曾决定將這部小說再次搬上銀幕，但卻由於全國有色人種協進會領導的抗議而無疾而終。
1965年，出現了一部由格察·馮·勞德瓦尼（Géza von Radványi）導演的德語版本，後來被剝削電影導演剋羅格·巴布引入了美國。迄今為止，最後的一個電影版本是1987年在電視上播映的版本。該版本由斯坦·萊森導演，約翰·蓋伊（John Gay）改編，出演主要演員的角色有埃弗裏·布魯剋斯、菲麗西亞·拉沙德、愛德華·伍德沃德、珍妮·劉易斯（Jenny Lewis）、塞繆爾·L·傑剋遜與金尼（Endyia Kinney）。
除了真人電影對《湯姆叔叔的小屋》的改編外，還有許許多多的動畫卡通的改編版本。這樣的動畫有：華特迪士尼的《米奇的情節劇》（1933年），其中迪士尼的經典角色被塗上了誇張的黑臉與橙紅的嘴唇；兔八哥卡通《南方油炸兔》（1953年），其中兔八哥把自己裝扮成了湯姆叔叔，並唱着“我的肯塔基故鄉”企圖越過梅森-狄剋遜綫；《湯姆叔叔的平房》（1937），一部由特剋斯·埃弗裏監製的華納兄弟卡通；《冰上的伊麗莎》（Eliza on Ice，1944年），由保羅·特裏製作的《太空飛鼠》卡通最早的幾集之一；以及《湯姆叔叔的小屋》（Uncle Tom's Cabaña，1947年），由特剋斯·埃弗裏導演的一部8分鐘長的卡通。
《湯姆叔叔的小屋》還曾對大量的電影産生過影響，包括1915年的電影《一個國傢的誕生》。這部頗具爭議性的電影故意地將一個類似於湯姆叔叔傢的小屋引入到了劇情的高潮：在小屋中，南方白人與他們從前的敵人（北方軍）聯合了起來，去一同捍衛“雅利安人的天賦權利”。學者認為，對類似小屋的重用，會讓當時的觀衆理解其涵義並同電影産生共鳴。
其他受《湯姆叔叔的小屋》影響的電影，還包括有：《漣漪》（Dimples，1936年秀蘭·鄧波兒主演的電影）、“湯姆叔叔的叔叔”（“Uncle Tom's Uncle”，係列電影《我們這一夥》在1926年的一集）、羅傑斯和哈默施泰因的音樂劇《國王與我》（其中有一場以傳統暹羅風格表演的芭蕾舞“托馬斯叔叔的小房子”，“Small House of Uncle Thomas”）以及《紐約黑幫》（其中，萊昂納多·迪卡普裏奧與丹尼爾·戴-劉易斯飾演的角色加入了一場改編自《湯姆叔叔的小屋》的假想戰爭）。