Abstract

Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Mrs. Stowe is known as a representative anti-slavery novel that reveals the great evil of slavery and stimulates people to overthrow such a merciless system. This paper will mainly analyze Mrs. Stowe’s creative motivation which is to reveal the great evil of slavery on women and encourage people to fight against the persecution of such a irrational system. The paper will analyze Mrs. Stowe’s creative motivation from two aspects. Firstly, the influence of the social background in her creation which consists of two parts, the releasing of The Fugitive Slave Act and the awakening of feminist consciousness. Secondly, the influence of Mrs. Stowe’s personal experience, which can be concluded into three parts, the direct witness in Cincinnati, the experience as a mother and her family atmosphere.

Key Words: anti-slavery  background  experience  motivation  

摘 要

  《汤姆叔叔的小屋》是美国南北战争时期反奴隶文学的经典之作，揭露了奴隶制的罪恶，激发了人们推翻奴隶制的狂潮。本文主要通过两大线索展开，第一，分析社会背景对斯托夫人创作动机的影响。包括逃亡奴隶法的颁布和女性主义思潮的兴起。第二，分析作者个人经历的影响。包括作者在辛辛那提的经历，作为一个母亲的经历以及家庭氛围对其所产生的影响。从而探究其写作动机，即：揭露奴隶制对于女性的伤害，从而加深人们对于奴隶制的是非观，激发他们推翻奴隶制。

关键词：反奴隶 社会背景 个人经历 动机

1 Introduction
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a representative anti-slavery work by Harriet Beecher Stowe. In the novel, Mrs. Stowe describes the tortured life of the blacks in detail together with their struggle to escape from such persecution. In accordance with Mrs. Stowe’s Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the novel intends to expose the great evil of slavery and recall people in suffering to overthrow such a merciless system. After the publishment, the novel has achieved an overnight success. “In the nineteenth century, Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold more copies than any book in the world except the Bible”. “It is also considered to be one of the most influential books of the century. It is the first American novel ever to sell over a million copies and its impact is generally thought to have been incalculable”. President Lincoln once met Harriet Beecher Stowe and said to her: “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war”.