Uncle Tom's Cabin Unit of Study
By David Cope

Unit Overview

This unit examines one of the most influential pieces of American literature, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and its effects on American society and culture during and after the slave era. Through a series of seven lessons, individual students and groups will investigate primary and secondary sources to explore the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe, her relationships with her family and other celebrities of the time period, and the content of and context for the novel. Students will use decision-making, analysis, and synthesis in evaluating Stowe's life and applying those concepts to today's society. The unit does not require students to read the entire novel as handouts of appropriate passages are provided.

National Curriculum Standards met by this lesson

For a list of standards that this unit addresses, click here.

Unit Menu

• Essay: Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin
  This essay gives an overview for Harriet Beecher Stowe's life as well as the creation and success of Uncle Tom's Cabin.


• Lesson: The Great Scenes of Uncle Tom's Cabin
  In this lesson, students will study primary and secondary sources to discover the great scenes and characters from Uncle Tom's Cabin and how they influenced the U.S. antebellum culture.


• Lesson: The Peculiar Institution in Uncle Tom's Cabin
  Harriet Beecher Stowe took great care in presenting slavery as an "institution" that affected everyone rather than just attacking individuals or the South as a whole. To make her point, Stowe portrayed various parts of the institution throughout the novel. In this lesson, students will research the role of the "institution" of slavery in the U.S. antebellum culture and Uncle Tom's Cabin.


• Lesson: Attitudes and Uncle Tom's Cabin
  Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin both reflected the racial attitudes of the time and influenced those attitudes. By examining primary and secondary sources, students will individually and in groups come to a consensus about Stowe's promotion of the African Colonization Movement in the novel and how it was a determining factor for many northern whites involved in the antislavery movement. Through selected excerpts from the book and personal experience, students will confront the role of racial stereotyping in the 1800s and today.


• Lesson: Attitudes and Uncle Tom's Cabin II
  Harriet Beecher Stowe was criticized at the time, and in many education circles today, as an unfair critic of an institution of which she was totally unfamiliar. In this lesson, students will research Stowe's depiction of slavery through selected excerpts from her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Students will discuss the controversial attitudes between master and slave that Stowe portrays and apply them to the law of the time and the concepts of the law that still exist today. Students also will examine how attitudes reflect their own decision-making.


• Lesson: The Character of Uncle Tom
  Few literary characters have caused such a stir--both in the time of the publication and in later times--as that of Uncle Tom. Harriet Beecher Stowe's depiction of her main character was controversial in her day among her readers, her supporters, and her detractors. Over time, the characteristics that Stowe held dear for Uncle Tom became a stereotype. Students will explore the background story of Josiah Henson and compare the real-life Uncle Tom to the fictional one. Other parts of the lesson will explore the criticism of the character and allow students to determine whether Harriet Beecher Stowe's depiction was fairly or unfairly treated.


• Lesson: Religion and Uncle Tom's Cabin
  Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin reflected not only the racial attitudes of the time but also the religious context of living in the 1800s United States. Students will examine how Stowe intersperses Biblical references throughout the novel. Many of the illusions, while familiar to readers in her era, are unfamiliar today and may take some explanation. For students interested in music, a study of Stowe's references to various hymns and classical music is included in this lesson.


• Lesson: Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe
  It is often said that politics make strange bedfellows. This lesson allows students to become acquainted with two of the most influential individuals in the antislavery movement and throughout the 1800s, and how their mutual respect affected one another and the United States. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe formed a fast friendship and alliance that allowed both to support each other while often holding differing views. This mutual support system drew criticism from many quarters, some extremely influential; students will be able to draw conclusions on how principle is often more important than popularity.


• Lesson: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Cost of Fame for Harriet Beecher Stowe
  Students today are used to the constant barrage of celebrity journalism. However, this aspect of writing was relatively new in the 1800s. Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of the first national celebrities, and not only her work but also her personal life came under close scrutiny. This lesson explores the effects of fame on Harriet Beecher Stowe's relationships with other noted personalities of the day (Jenny Lind, Mary and Emily Edmondson, and Rev. Joel Parker), and how her fame was used for good but also was costly to her. Students will be able to draw parallels between Stowe's fame and that of celebrities of today.


• Lesson: The Power of One and Uncle Tom's Cabin
  One of the little noticed themes in Uncle Tom's Cabin is Harriet Beecher Stowe's promotion of the positive influence of the individual within the community. Through examining selected passages from the novel, students will use the governmental philosophy of John Locke to underscore Stowe's belief in individual responsibility and political action.