Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here. Uncle Tom's Cabin was America's first bestseller after being published in eighteen fifty two. This anti slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe sold some three hundred and ten thousand copies in the United States and at least one and a half million more abroad, where it was translated into sixteen languages. But the greatest impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin was to awaken its mostly white Northern US readers to the horrors and immorality of chattel slavery. Before the article this episode is based on How Stuff Work. Spoke with Patricia Turner, a professor of African American Studies at UCLA. She said Stowe was an abolitionist who tapped into the historical moment. She thought, really strategically, what do I have to write that will move the people to understand that it's impossible to be a Christian and to hold slaves. She knew exactly what kind of hero to create in Uncle Tom, what kind of situations to put him in, and how to characterize the slave owners in the book, which may strike modern readers as overly sentimental. Uncle Tom is a deeply faithful Christian, a courageous and selfless family man who first risks his life to save a young white girl and later gives his life rather than divulge the location of two enslaved women who have escaped. Uncle Tom is beaten to death by his cruel enslaver, but not before Tom forgives his tormentor a much like Jesus Christ in the story of his crucifixion. The book and its hero deserve credit for popularizing the cause of abolition in the lead up to the Civil War. According to a well worn but unconfirmed legend, when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe, he said, so you are the little woman who wrote the book that stars did this great war. But here's where the story of Uncle Tom takes an unexpected turn. Uncle Tom was the heroic martyr of one of the best selling books of the eighteen hundreds, but his name got twisted into a modern day insult. In this sense, it's most traditionally used by black people to accuse a black person of being a trader to their people. So how did this happen? Turner believes the transformation of Uncle Tom from hero to trader began during the thousands of wildly popular stage productions of Uncle Tom's Cabin that toured the US and the globe from the eighteen fifties through the nineteen thirties. Many of these were minstrel shows featuring white actors wearing blackface, and Uncle Tom's character and the book's storyline were changed to suit the mostly white working class audiences. Stowe's novel was an earnest tragedy, but Turner said in order to sell tickets, the producers needed to come up with stage shows that would have music, comedy, and a happy ending, and Uncle Tom was portrayed as this extremely deferential, subservient, poorly spoken black man who would give the white slave owners or any other white person what they wanted, which was nothing like the book. The stage productions also aged Tom into a feeble, white haired old man rather than the hard working forty something who the book character was. Turner says that nineteenth century white audiences didn't want to see a strong black man on stage unless he was demonized. Some scholars believe that the Uncle Tom insult began when post emancipation black Americans were trying to distance themselves from these subservant and pathetic caricatures for this new generation struggling for true freedom from oppression, not just in law, but in life. A black person who played into the Uncle Tom stereotypes of the minstrel show would indeed have been a traitor. But as per the usual with history, the story isn't that simple. When literary historian Adinas Spingarn first read Uncle Tom's Cabin in graduate school at Harvard, she was struck by the obvious discrepancy between Uncle Tom's christlike character in the book and Uncle Tom the racialized slur. After hearing about the transformation of Tom's character in minstrel shows, Spingarn tracked down hundreds of newspaper reviews of the many stage productions of Uncle Tom's Cabin. It turns out he wasn't described in contemporary reviews as a subservient buffoon. How Stuff Works also spoke with Spingarn, She said, in both white and black newspapers, the character of Uncle Tom was described as virtuous and dignified. In fact, the objections to him by some conservative white critics was that he spoke too intelligently and too wisely, and was too perfect a Christian. These were some of the same conservative objections to the novel. Furthermore, the stage productions were still seen as dangerous in former Confederate states like Kentucky, which banned all touring shows of Uncle Tom's Cabin as late as nineteen oh six. Spingarn published a book about all of this in twenty eighteen, a titled Uncle Tom From Martyr to Trader. In it, she argues that the character and his name have been a quote shaped by fundamental debates within the black community over who should represent the race and how it should be represented. It's hard for us twenty first century multimedia humans to grasp the impact and influence of Uncle Tom's Cabin in the nineteenth century imagination and how this character became the very image and emblem of enslaved black Americans. One of Thomas Edison's first fictional movies was a film version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, released in nine two oh three, the same year that he shot The Great Train Robbery. Spingarne said Uncle Tom was so ubiquitously understood a stand in for American slavery that both white and black Americans called the days of slavery the days of Uncle Tom. The sheer association of Uncle Tom with the violence and any humanity of enslavement would have understandably engendered negative connotations, which were then picked up by a rising tide of black political leaders in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Spingarn says the term uncle Tom first took on a pejorative meeting in the community as early as the eighteen eighties, when a black lawyer decried what he called a subservient Uncle Tom type of manhood, adding I despise that as heartily as anyone. The term gained power as a potent political epithet in the nineteen teens, was slung by people like Reverend George Alexander Maguire, an acolyte of the Black nationalist Marcus Garfie. Through the nineteen sixties, it remained a choice insult. Malcolm X lobbed it at Martin Luther King Junior, and Stokely Carmichael, a leader in the Black Power movement, used it against Roy Wilkins, then the executive director of the NAACP. More recently, the term has been wielded against Black conservatives like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and black supporters of Donald Trump. The Spingarn seas the long and strange history of Uncle Tom as part and parcel of America's ongoing struggle with its original sin of slavery and the ongoing reality of racism. She said, the figure of Uncle Tom has changed because we've always used him to talk about race. What is authentic blackness? What is the right protest strategy? What should the black image be? As long as Americans keep grappling with these questions and with racism, both overt and systemic, Uncle Tom will be right there with us. Today's episode is based on the article the Journey of Uncle Tom from abolitionist hero to ultimate sellout on HowStuffWorks dot com, written by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with howsdiffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here. Uncle Tom's Cabin was America's first bestseller after being published in eighteen fifty two. This anti slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe sold some three hundred and ten thousand copies in the United States and at least one and a half million more abroad, where it was translated into sixteen languages. But the greatest impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin was to awaken its mostly white Northern US readers to the horrors and immorality of chattel slavery. Before the article this episode is based on How Stuff Work. Spoke with Patricia Turner, a professor of African American Studies at UCLA. She said Stowe was an abolitionist who tapped into the historical moment. She thought, really strategically, what do I have to write that will move the people to understand that it's impossible to be a Christian and to hold slaves. She knew exactly what kind of hero to create in Uncle Tom, what kind of situations to put him in, and how to characterize the slave owners in the book, which may strike modern readers as overly sentimental. Uncle Tom is a deeply faithful Christian, a courageous and selfless family man who first risks his life to save a young white girl and later gives his life rather than divulge the location of two enslaved women who have escaped. Uncle Tom is beaten to death by his cruel enslaver, but not before Tom forgives his tormentor a much like Jesus Christ in the story of his crucifixion. The book and its hero deserve credit for popularizing the cause of abolition in the lead up to the Civil War. According to a well worn but unconfirmed legend, when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe, he said, so you are the little woman who wrote the book that stars did this great war. But here's where the story of Uncle Tom takes an unexpected turn. Uncle Tom was the heroic martyr of one of the best selling books of the eighteen hundreds, but his name got twisted into a modern day insult. In this sense, it's most traditionally used by black people to accuse a black person of being a trader to their people. So how did this happen? Turner believes the transformation of Uncle Tom from hero to trader began during the thousands of wildly popular stage productions of Uncle Tom's Cabin that toured the US and the globe from the eighteen fifties through the nineteen thirties. Many of these were minstrel shows featuring white actors wearing blackface, and Uncle Tom's character and the book's storyline were changed to suit the mostly white working class audiences. Stowe's novel was an earnest tragedy, but Turner said in order to sell tickets, the producers needed to come up with stage shows that would have music, comedy, and a happy ending, and Uncle Tom was portrayed as this extremely deferential, subservient, poorly spoken black man who would give the white slave owners or any other white person what they wanted, which was nothing like the book. The stage productions also aged Tom into a feeble, white haired old man rather than the hard working forty something who the book character was. Turner says that nineteenth century white audiences didn't want to see a strong black man on stage unless he was demonized. Some scholars believe that the Uncle Tom insult began when post emancipation black Americans were trying to distance themselves from these subservant and pathetic caricatures for this new generation struggling for true freedom from oppression, not just in law, but in life. A black person who played into the Uncle Tom stereotypes of the minstrel show would indeed have been a traitor. But as per the usual with history, the story isn't that simple. When literary historian Adinas Spingarn first read Uncle Tom's Cabin in graduate school at Harvard, she was struck by the obvious discrepancy between Uncle Tom's christlike character in the book and Uncle Tom the racialized slur. After hearing about the transformation of Tom's character in minstrel shows, Spingarn tracked down hundreds of newspaper reviews of the many stage productions of Uncle Tom's Cabin. It turns out he wasn't described in contemporary reviews as a subservient buffoon. How Stuff Works also spoke with Spingarn, She said, in both white and black newspapers, the character of Uncle Tom was described as virtuous and dignified. In fact, the objections to him by some conservative white critics was that he spoke too intelligently and too wisely, and was too perfect a Christian. These were some of the same conservative objections to the novel. Furthermore, the stage productions were still seen as dangerous in former Confederate states like Kentucky, which banned all touring shows of Uncle Tom's Cabin as late as nineteen oh six. Spingarn published a book about all of this in twenty eighteen, a titled Uncle Tom From Martyr to Trader. In it, she argues that the character and his name have been a quote shaped by fundamental debates within the black community over who should represent the race and how it should be represented. It's hard for us twenty first century multimedia humans to grasp the impact and influence of Uncle Tom's Cabin in the nineteenth century imagination and how this character became the very image and emblem of enslaved black Americans. One of Thomas Edison's first fictional movies was a film version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, released in nine two oh three, the same year that he shot The Great Train Robbery. Spingarne said Uncle Tom was so ubiquitously understood a stand in for American slavery that both white and black Americans called the days of slavery the days of Uncle Tom. The sheer association of Uncle Tom with the violence and any humanity of enslavement would have understandably engendered negative connotations, which were then picked up by a rising tide of black political leaders in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Spingarn says the term uncle Tom first took on a pejorative meeting in the community as early as the eighteen eighties, when a black lawyer decried what he called a subservient Uncle Tom type of manhood, adding I despise that as heartily as anyone. The term gained power as a potent political epithet in the nineteen teens, was slung by people like Reverend George Alexander Maguire, an acolyte of the Black nationalist Marcus Garfie. Through the nineteen sixties, it remained a choice insult. Malcolm X lobbed it at Martin Luther King Junior, and Stokely Carmichael, a leader in the Black Power movement, used it against Roy Wilkins, then the executive director of the NAACP. More recently, the term has been wielded against Black conservatives like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and black supporters of Donald Trump. The Spingarn seas the long and strange history of Uncle Tom as part and parcel of America's ongoing struggle with its original sin of slavery and the ongoing reality of racism. She said, the figure of Uncle Tom has changed because we've always used him to talk about race. What is authentic blackness? What is the right protest strategy? What should the black image be? As long as Americans keep grappling with these questions and with racism, both overt and systemic, Uncle Tom will be right there with us. Today's episode is based on the article the Journey of Uncle Tom from abolitionist hero to ultimate sellout on HowStuffWorks dot com, written by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with howsdiffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.