The Lofty and the Lowly, or Good in All and None All Good

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The Lofty and the Lowly, or Good in All and None All Good
Author Maria Jane McIntosh
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Plantation literature
Publisher D. Appleton & Company
Publication date
1853
Media typePrint
Pagesc.300

The Lofty and the Lowly, or Good in All and None All Good is a novel by Maria Jane McIntosh published by D. Appleton & Company in 1853. It was one of many anti-Tom novels published in response to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin . The story is set is Georgia and tells of a plantation owner's efforts to avoid bankruptcy with the help of his loyal slave Daddy Cato. Their efforts are challenged by a northern usurer and devious northern capitalists. The book sold well across the United States upon release, making it one of the most successful anti-Tom novels in the middle 19th century.

Maria Jane McIntosh American writer

Maria Jane McIntosh was a writer. She began her literary career using the pseudonym "Aunt Kitty" and used contrasting pairs of characters to demonstrate her moral lesson.

D. Appleton & Company publishing company

D. Appleton & Company was an American company founded by Daniel Appleton, who opened a general store which included books. He published his first book in 1831. The company's publications gradually extended over the entire field of literature. It issued the works of contemporary scientists at moderate prices, for example, Herbert Spencer, John Tyndall, Thomas Huxley, Charles Darwin, etc. Medical books formed a special department, and books in the Spanish language for the South American market were a specialty which the firm made its own. In belles lettres and American history, it had a strong list of names among its authors.

Harriet Beecher Stowe 19th-century American abolitionist and author

Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. She came from the Beecher family, a famous religious family, and is best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), which depicts the harsh conditions for enslaved African Americans. The book reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and Great Britain, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. Stowe wrote 30 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential for both her writings and her public stances and debates on social issues of the day.

Contents

Overview

The Lofty and the Lowly is one of several examples of the pro-slavery plantation literature genre that emerged from the Southern United States in response to the abolitionist novel Uncle Tom's Cabin , which was criticised in the South for its portrayal of the evils of slaveholding. The majority of these "anti-Tom" novels often focused on the benevolence of plantation owners, and the evils of abolitionism and capitalism practised in the Northern United States. McIntosh's novel follows this latter route, although McIntosh claims in the preface of her novel that she is attempting to display a neutral image of slavery in her novel. [1]

Anti-Tom literature

Anti-Tom literature refers to the 19th century pro-slavery novels and other literary works written in response to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Also called plantation literature, these writings were generally written by authors from the Southern United States. Books in the genre attempted to show either that slavery was beneficial to African Americans or that the evils of slavery as depicted in Stowe's book were overblown and incorrect.

Abolitionism in the United States Movement to end slavery in the United States

Abolitionism in the United States was the movement before and during the American Civil War to end slavery in the United States. In the Americas and western Europe, abolitionism was a movement to end the Atlantic slave trade and set slaves free. In the 17th century, enlightenment thinkers condemned slavery on humanistic grounds and English Quakers and some Evangelical denominations condemned slavery as un-Christian. At that time, most slaves were Africans, but thousands of Native Americans were also enslaved. In the 18th century, as many as six million Africans were transported to the Americas as slaves, at least a third of them on British ships to North America. The colony of Georgia originally abolished slavery within its territory, and thereafter, abolition was part of the message of the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s in the Thirteen Colonies.

<i>Uncle Toms Cabin</i> 1852 anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War".

Plot

The novel takes place along the Georgia coastline in 1837, where the prosperous Montrose plantation continues to yield a rich harvest of cotton each year, which is gathered by the slaves of the plantation. The elderly owner of the plantation, Colonel Montrose, has died of old age, leaving his son to manage the plantation and tend to his slaves. However, with the onset of the Panic of 1837, Young Montrose faces bankruptcy unless he is able to maintain the plantation efficiently and keep it working properly. With the aid of his Christianized slave Daddy Cato, Young Montrose sets to work on getting the plantation back up to speed, but his efforts come under the scrutiny of a usurer named Uriah Goldwire, who is employed by a group of devious capitalists from the North who wish to see the Montrose plantation ruined in order to keep their own pockets filled. Montrose and Cato eventually begin to fight against the efforts of Goldwire to sabotage their work, even going so far as to quell a pro-abolitionist riot intended to force the Montrose slaves into running away from their homes in Georgia to the North.

Georgia (U.S. state) State of the United States of America

Georgia is a state in the Southeastern United States. It began as a British colony in 1733, the last and southernmost of the original Thirteen Colonies to be established. Named after King George II of Great Britain, the Province of Georgia covered the area from South Carolina south to Spanish Florida and west to French Louisiana at the Mississippi River. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788. In 1802–1804, western Georgia was split to the Mississippi Territory, which later split to form Alabama with part of former West Florida in 1819. Georgia declared its secession from the Union on January 19, 1861, and was one of the original seven Confederate states. It was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15, 1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States. From 2007 to 2008, 14 of Georgia's counties ranked among the nation's 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South. Atlanta, the state's capital and most populous city, has been named a global city. Atlanta's metropolitan area contains about 55% of the population of the entire state.

Panic of 1837 American financial crisis

The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down while unemployment went up. Pessimism abounded during the time. The panic had both domestic and foreign origins. Speculative lending practices in western states, a sharp decline in cotton prices, a collapsing land bubble, international specie flows, and restrictive lending policies in Great Britain were all to blame. On May 10, 1837, banks in New York City suspended specie payments, meaning that they would no longer redeem commercial paper in specie at full face value. Despite a brief recovery in 1838, the recession persisted for approximately seven years. Banks collapsed, businesses failed, prices declined, and thousands of workers lost their jobs. Unemployment may have been as high as 25% in some locales. The years 1837 to 1844 were, generally speaking, years of deflation in wages and prices.

Bankruptcy legal status of a person or other entity that cannot repay the debts it owes to creditors

Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor.

Characters

Reception

According to the University of Virginia, The Lofty and the Lowly was a critical success in both north and south upon its original release in 1853. In the opening weeks of publishing, 8,000 copies of the novel were sold in the entire United States. [2] This would have made The Lofty and the Lowly the most critically successful anti-Tom novel since the publication of Aunt Phillis's Cabin in 1852, which sold between 20,000 and 30,000 copies for the entire year. [3]

University of Virginia University in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States

The University of Virginia is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was founded in 1819 by Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson. It is known for its historic foundations, student-run honor code, and secret societies. UVA is the flagship university of Virginia and home to Jefferson's Academical Village, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

<i>Aunt Philliss Cabin</i> book by Mary Eastman

Aunt Phillis's Cabin; or, Southern Life As It Is by Mary Henderson Eastman is a plantation fiction novel, and is perhaps the most read anti-Tom novel in American literature. It was published by Lippincott, Grambo & Co. of Philadelphia in 1852 as a response to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, published earlier that year. The novel sold 20,000–30,000 copies, making it a strong commercial success and bestseller. Based on her growing up in Warrenton, Virginia of an elite planter family, Eastman portrays plantation owners and slaves as mutually respectful, kind, and happy beings.

Publication history

The Lofty and the Lowly was first published in 1853 by D. Appleton & Company. The novel was one of few anti-Tom novels to be published in separate volumes rather than a single, collected novel. [4] D. Appleton & Company. would later publish other anti-Tom novels, including the 1860 novel The Ebony Idol by G. M. Flanders. [5]

The Ebony Idol is a plantation literature novel first published in 1860 and written by G.M. Flanders.

Related Research Articles

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1853.

<i>The Planters Northern Bride</i> book by Caroline Lee Hentz

The Planter's Northern Bride is an 1854 novel written by Caroline Lee Hentz, in response to the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852.

Uncle Robin, in His Cabin in Virginia, and Tom Without One in Boston is an 1853 novel written by J.W. Page and released by J. W. Randolph Publishers of Richmond, Virginia.

Antifanaticism: A Tale of the South is an 1853 plantation fiction novel by Martha Haines Butt.

<i>Little Eva: The Flower of the South</i> 19th century childrens novel by Philip J. Cozans

Little Eva: The Flower of the South is an Anti-Tom children's book by American writer Philip J. Cozans, published sometime between 1853 and 1861. It was a part of the Southern United States' response to Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which criticized slavery in the United States with commercial success. Little Eva: The Flower of the South is one of the only Anti-Tom books for children and three children's editions of Stowe's novel published in the 1850s. Scholars identified the book's protagonist as a loose adaptation of the Uncle Tom's Cabin character Little Eva.

White Acre vs. Black Acre is an 1856 plantation fiction novel written by William M. Burwell.

<i>The Black Gauntlet: A Tale of Plantation Life in South Carolina</i>

The Black Gauntlet: A Tale of Plantation Life in South Carolina is an anti-Tom novel written in 1860 by Mary Howard Schoolcraft, published under her married name of Mrs. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft.

Life at the South; or, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" As It Is is an 1852 plantation fiction novel written by William L.G. Smith.

The North and the South; or, Slavery and Its Contrasts is an 1852 plantation fiction novel by Caroline Rush, and among the first examples of the genre, alongside others such as Aunt Phillis's Cabin by Mary Henderson Eastman and Life at the South; or, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" As It Is by W.L.G. Smith, both of which were also released in 1852.

Frank Freeman's Barber Shop is an 1852 plantation fiction novel written by Baynard Rush Hall.

<i>The Cabin and Parlor; or, Slaves and Masters</i> book by Charles Jacobs Peterson

The Cabin and Parlor; or, Slaves and Masters is an 1852 novel by Charles Jacobs Peterson, writing under the pseudonym J. Thornton Randolph.

<i>Mr. Frank, the Underground Mail-Agent</i> book by anonymus

Mr. Frank, the Underground Mail-Agent is an 1853 parody novel written by an unknown author credited as "Vidi".

Liberia; or, Mr. Peyton's Experiments is an 1853 novel by Sarah Josepha Hale, the author of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb", who wrote the novel under the name of Sara J. Hale.

<i>Ellen; or, The Fanatics Daughter</i>

Ellen; or, The Fanatic's Daughter' is an 1860 plantation fiction novel written by Mrs. V.G. Cowdin.

Tit for Tat is an 1856 novel written anonymously by "A Lady of New Orleans".

Meredith Calhoun was a Planter and a newspaper editor in Grant Parish, Louisiana, known for his editorial activism on behalf of the Democratic Party.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/proslav/prfimjma1t.html
  2. ↑ http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/proslav/mcintoshhp.html
  3. ↑ http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/proslav/eastmanhp.html
  4. ↑ http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/proslav/mcintoshhp.html
  5. ↑ http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/proslav/flandershp.html
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