Racial Double Standards in Uncle Tom's Cabin By Catherine
Mountcastle When Harriet Beecher Stowe published her novel Uncle
Tom’s Cabin in 1852, she gained instant notoriety. Her novel
helped spread the reality of the cruelties and injustices of the
American slavery system nationwide and eventually across the
globe. However, Mrs. Stowe was not without critics. Shortly
after the release of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, William Lloyd Garrison,
a famous abolitionist and founder of the Liberator published a
scathing review of Stowe’s novel arguing that her stance on
slavery was a double standard. Stowe’s novel clearly does
contain racial double standards; however, this attributed to the
novels popularity amid a northern white audience in the mid-
nineteenth century. William Lloyd Garrison was a well known
abolitionist. His review of Stowe’s novel may have seemed
shocking at the time of its publication since both he and Stowe
were abolitionists. However, his accusations of racial double
standards throughout Uncle Tom’s Cabin a