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Birdoff Collection | Harriet Beecher Stowe Center




Music in UTC
Investigations


Use this list of suggestions to guide your research and develop potential writing and report assignments.

1.   Using the Search feature with the text of Uncle Tom's Cabin, search for "song" and variants of "sing" (sang, sung, and singing). CLICK HERE for some hints and suggestions on using the Search feature efficiently. Examine the results you locate-- make a table or a chart--and take notes about the ways in which these words are used in the text of the novel. What conclusions can you draw? What are the functions of singing and songs in the novel? Are there times in the novel when singing or songs seem especially important? Why? How important are singing and songs to the plot of Uncle Tom's Cabin?

2.   Most of the music in Uncle Tom's Cabin is religious--the slaves sing CHURCH & CAMP MEETING HYMNS well known to contemporary audiences. Uncle Tom's hymnbook is as important as his Bible is to him, and he provides instruction to Little Eva in the singing of hymns. Study the lyrics of some of the hymns that appear in the text (for example, Chapter 22 and others that you locate). How do the lyrics reflect the attitudes of Uncle Tom? What are the religious values that the lyrics suggest? How does the singing of hymns work to advance the plot of Uncle Tom's Cabin?

3.   In Chapter 32, Simon Legree orders his newly-purchased slaves to sing for his entertainment on the way to his farm. The slaves begin to sing a hymn but Legree objects and insists that they sing something livelier. The slaves oblige with the "rowdy" song that Legree obviously favors. The narrator of the novel refers to this as an "unmeaning song." Based on your reading of and listening to the MINSTREL SONGS as well as your reading of scenes in the novel where such songs are performed (Chapter 1, Chapter 4, and others that you locate), what is the function of these songs in the novel? Why does Stowe refer to these as "unmeaning" songs? What are the implications for the forced entertainment that these songs provide for white masters?

4.   In the HYMNS that are mentioned or sung in the novel, various depictions of an afterlife or heaven are evoked--as a "paradise," as a "mansion," as a place inhabited by "bright spirits," and other descriptions that you can locate on your own. What are the general notions of "heaven" as illustrated by the hymns that are sung? How do these echo other notions of heaven as described in Uncle Tom's Cabin? What was the importance of heaven or an afterlife in the religious practice of mid-nineteenth- century America? What was the importance of heaven to slaves according to Stowe's presentation of their religious beliefs?

5.   The hymns of Uncle Tom's Cabin offer various kinds of consolation to the slaves, especially to Uncle Tom. In his cabin on the Shelby farm, with the St. Clares, and even with Simon Legree, Uncle Tom sings hymns to himself and to others. Study the text of the HYMNS themselves, as well as places in the text where Uncle Tom sings (such as in Chapter 16 and others that you locate). What role do place names such as the "New Jerulsalem" and "Canaan" play in the hymns he sings? What are the effects of they hymns on the other characters? What conclusions can you draw about Uncle Tom's religious faith as depicted by Stowe? For slaves in general?

6.   Readers often comment about Uncle Tom's Cabin that we learn a great deal about nineteenth-century domesticity and housekeeping. Consider the descriptions of the Shelby farm, Uncle Tom and Aunt Chloe's cabin, the St. Clare homes in New Orleans and at Lake Pontchartrain, and even Simon Legree's farm. Contemporary music--in the nineteenth-century and today--both reflects and shapes attitudes about culture. Listen to and read the PARLOUR SONGS that were popular at the time. In what ways do the parlour songs reflect attitudes about domesticity and the home? How are these evoked in the descriptions of the various households of Uncle Tom's Cabin? What conclusions can you draw about Stowe's conception of domesticity and popular nineteenth-century attitudes?

7.   Uncle Tom's Cabin was the runaway bestseller of the 1850s--its popularity was such that Stowe achieved a considerable celebrity, both in the United States and in England where she traveled after publishing the novel. Almost immediately, the novel was adapted for the stage and for a variety of short performances. In addition, a number of songs were written based on the novel itself. Read the lyrics of and listen to the CONTEMPORARY SONGS & MUSIC written in response to Uncle Tom's Cabin. What are the characters and scenes from the novel that receive attention? How are details from the novel changed or edited in the songs? How does the music itself capture the spirit of the novel as you read it?

8.   Examine the text of THE ANTI-SLAVERY HARP, a collection of abolitionist songs compiled in 1848 by William Wells Brown, an African-American abolitionist, novelist, and playwright. Although Stowe did not specifically use the text of any of the abolitionist songs in Uncle Tom's Cabin, contemporary readers would have been generally familiar with the songs and certainly their messages. To what extent to the abolitionist songs echo the central themes of the hymns used in Uncle Tom's Cabin-- the promise of an afterlife and the freedom from slavery in heaven? To what extent do the abolitionist songs echo political themes in Uncle Tom's Cabin, such as the rights of the individual against the state? To what extent do the abolitionist songs echo domestic themes in the novel, such as the centrality of motherhood? In what ways do the abolitionist songs reflect other themes of Uncle Tom's Cabin, such as racism, colonization and violence?

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