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

Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin fired up the abolitionist movement.

From The Guardian • Aug. 24, 2019

It fired up Harriet Beecher Stowe to write "Uncle Tom's Cabin," the novel that Lincoln told her had "started this great war."

From Salon • Mar. 4, 2019

By the second grade, I was intimately familiar with and capable of discussing in some detail Tom Sawyer and Uncle Tom's Cabin.

From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam