Uncle Tom's Cabin

American  

noun

1. an antislavery novel (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

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Uncle Tom's Cabin Cultural  

1. (1852) A novel, first published serially, by Harriet Beecher Stowe; it paints a grim picture of life under slavery. The title character is a pious, passive slave, who is eventually beaten to death by the overseer Simon Legree.

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Published shortly before the Civil War, Uncle Tom's Cabin won support for the antislavery cause.

Although Stowe presents Uncle Tom as a virtuous man, the expression “Uncle Tom” is often used as a term of reproach for a subservient black person who tolerates discrimination.

Example Sentences

Or as Caviezel puts it in his post-credits message: “I think we can make Sound of Freedom the Uncle Tom’s Cabin of 21st-century slavery.”

From Slate • Jul. 13, 2023

Montgomery buys home that inspired novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

From Washington Post • Feb. 25, 2022

All in all, "The Jungle" ranks alongside Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as one of the most politically influential works of literature in American history.

From Salon • Oct. 17, 2021

Southern critics denounced Uncle Tom’s Cabin as dangerous rubbish, but millions of northerners embraced the book itself and the traveling stage versions that soon crisscrossed their section.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

The book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, was published in two volumes in March, 1852.

From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry