New Anti-Tom Literature

Exhibit created by Essence Smith, Class of 2024, Trinity College

This exhibit examines the literary works of African-American writers from the early 20th Century to today, who have responded to publication and the impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and have reimagined themselves using their own voice.

Anti-Uncle Tom Works by African Americans existed first as slave narratives (or freedom narratives) in the 19th century, and helped Stowe formulated ideas on slavery and its abuses. Why is it then that Americans were more inclined to listen to a white woman’s fiction, than a Black person’s nonfiction?

The writers featured in this exhibit incorporate a variety of different genres, thus highlighting the evolution of race representation that occurred throughout the years.

Please be advised

1938 

Richard Wright

Uncle Tom’s Children 

Uncle Tom’s Children was published by Richard Wright in 1938 in response to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This book not only highlights the enslavement period and its aftermath but focuses on African Americans reclaiming a sense of agency.

“I had written a book of short stories which was published under the title of “Uncle Tom’s Children”. When the review of that book began to appear, I realized that I had made an awful naive mistake. I found that I had written a book which even bankers’ daughters could read and weep over and feel good about. I swore to myself that if I ever wrote another book, no one would weep over it; that it would be so hard and deep that they would have to face it without the consolation of tears.”

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Richard Wright in How Bigger was Born

Richard Wright went on to write Native Son which was the infamous story of Bigger Thomas, a young Black man who was the victim of racism and ignorance.

Notes of a Native Son

Notes of a Native Son written by James Baldwin was a series of essays that discussed race relations. This edition was published in 1963. It includes his 1949 essay “Everybody’s Protest Novel” in which he calls Uncle Tom’s Cabin “a very bad novel.” Baldwin criticizes Stowe’s anti-slavery work for its virtuous sentimentality and oversimplifying her Black characters, diminishing their humanity.

James Baldwin in Paris. Directed by Terence Dixon 1970. 

Relationship with Richard Wright

While both Richard Wright and James Baldwin are influential writers that have contributed greatly to the conversation about race in the United States, they had different perspectives on how their literature could be used to achieve a certain goal. The tension between Wright and Baldwin most resembles the tension of Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany a century earlier who disagreed on the benefits of Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Thus, highlighting the fact that Black writers aren’t a monolith.

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Learn more about Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany’s relationship in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin in Frederick Douglass’ Paper: An Analysis of Reception” by Robert S. Levine.

 

 

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1968

Amiri Baraka

Tales

 

Tales by Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) is a collection of essays published in 1967. It features Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Alternate Ending aiming to reinterpret the original story without giving into melodramatic spectacles. Baraka, one of the key figures of the Black Arts Movement, used his writing to give agency to his Black characters.

 

Black Arts Movement

Amiri Baraka reveals how the Black Arts Movement has impacted the content of his poetry.

 

The artist’s role is to raise the consciousness of the people. To make them understand life, the world and themselves more completely. That’s how I see it. Otherwise, I don’t know why you do it.

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Amiri Baraka

 

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1976

Ismael Reed

Flight to Canada

Flight to Canada is a novel published by Ishmael Reed in 1976. Reed’s novel serves as a mimicry to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with the most blatant examples being the made-up TV show titled the “Beecher Hour” and Raven being asked to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin at the end of the book.

Ishmael Reed describes his writing style and where he draws inspiration from.

 

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1987

Toni Morrison

Beloved

Beloved written by Toni Morrison explores the Reconstruction period following the American Civil War. The book was published in 1987. Both Morrison and Stowe tell a story about the separation of enslaved parents and children. However, Morrison also focuses on other harsh realities of enslaved Black women, such as committing infanticide, that Stowe didn’t address in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

In the above video, Toni Morrison reads an excerpt from Beloved, and describes a mother’s compulsion to protect her children from pain and hardship even if extreme measures have to be taken.

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Likewise, in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Morrison also chooses to examine the painful lens in which an enslaved mother struggles to give their child a better life. Though, Morrison’s character, Sethe, sees death as the only option for her child, Stowe paints a more hopeful story.

Margaret Garner: A Second Look

 

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2016

Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad is a historic fiction novel that is based on the lives of enslaved people who were seeking freedom. The book features elements of fantasy and was adapted into a TV show in 2021. The novel tells a story of resistance through the eyes of African Americans that wanted to regain agency, in contrast to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

The Underground Railroad Miniseries

More on The Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad Sites on the Connecticut Freedom Trail

Explore the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

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2019

Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Water Dancer

Bestselling author of Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates, presents The Water Dancer – a novel about a young boy with a mysterious superpower. Similar to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Coates recounts the horrors of enslavement but chooses to do so through the power of memory.