Essay On Mccord's Abolitionist Novel

understood in the time that men dealt with finances, politics, and business while women were the virtuous homemakers who remained silent on public matters. In McCord’s perspective among others, Stowe clearly violated the theoretical separate spheres between men and women by writing an abolitionist novel that changed how Americans and citizens from other countries felt about slavery. McCord further questioned Stowe’s virtue for including mulatto characters, such as Eliza, and claimed Stowe untruthfully conveyed the sexual exploitation of slaves. Despite McCord’s being in denial of slaves being raped by their white slave-holders, this was the truth. Stowe included a letter from James L. Hili that spoke of three instances where the slaves were …show more content…
McCord fails in her understanding of the meaning of this because she is a strong supporter of slavery. Stowe may have used the mulatto as an approach to white readers, but this was the most effective method to change the way they felt about slavery by making the characters more relatable, even if by appearance alone. Being able to relate to the characters was powerful in the sense that it would evoke the most sympathy. By choosing a mulatto character, Stowe was not condemning slaves who had darker skin color, as Uncle Tom was not a mulatto and had the most honest characteristics of all the slave characters. While McCord further …show more content…
Stowe emphasizes one of the acceptable aspects is that some slaveholders, such as the Shelbys and the St. Clares, truly do care about their slaves. On the other hand, an unacceptable aspect that she highlights is how there are certain slaveholders, such as Legree, who are ruthless yet there are laws in place that allow the murder and inhumane treatment of slaves to go unpunished. Another acceptable aspect that Stowe tries to convey in her novel is the idea of colonization as a possible solution to end slavery but most readers view this as an objectionable solution. Another unacceptable aspect that Stowe emphasizes is how wrongly the public mind views slaves as holding no feelings for their loved ones or children, which is why Stowe set out with an agenda to change this mindset. Stowe emphasizes the misery slaves feel when they are separated from their families and how even when they are being treated fair by their slaveholders, the slaves would still rather have their freedom, as any individual would. Another sore subject that Stowe includes about the unacceptable aspects of slavery is perceived through her use of the mulatto characters to remind readers that the majority of mulatto slaves that exist were due to white men raping the slaves. While Stowe’s novel may have comprised what appeared to be only the exceptions of the slave systems, the reality is that