But Stowe’s novel did something all those speeches didn’t do. The lesson: Appeal to people’s emotion, not their rationale, when trying to rally public opinion.Ībolitionists had tried to rouse the conscience of Americans for years by appealing to their Christian and Democratic sensibilities. Even people who cared nothing about slavery became furious when they read or saw “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”’ performed on stage, the documentary reveals. The book became a massive best-seller and was turned into a popular play. The novel revolved around a slave called Tom, who attempted to preserve his faith and family amid the brutality of slavery. Some historians say it started the Civil War. It hit the American public like a meteor when it was published in 1852. Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” awakened the nation to the horrors of slavery more than any other speech or book of that era, some historians say. It came from the pen of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister who joined the abolitionist movement, the PBS film says. He was an extraordinary writer.īut the most well-known condemnation of slavery during that era didn’t come from the pen of Lincoln. Lincoln is often considered to be the nation’s greatest president in part because of such speeches. Near the end of “Lincoln,” Spielberg shows the president delivering his second inaugural address, a majestic speech marked by harsh biblical language.
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The belief that slaves waited for Lincoln to free them ignores the actions they took to free themselves, new PBS film says.
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