Aunt Phillis's Cabin

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Aunt Phillis's Cabin; or, Southern Life as It Is
Aunt Phillis's Cabin.jpg
Title page of the 1852 edition
Author Mary Henderson Eastman
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Plantation literature
anti-Tom novel
Publisher Lippincott, Grambo & Co.
Publication date
1852
Media typePrint

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, far fewer than Stowe's novel, but still 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.

Contents

Overview

Published in 1852, Aunt Phillis's Cabin contains contrasts and comparisons to the anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, which was published earlier that year. It serves as an antithesis; Eastman's novel deliberately referred to the situation in Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, where plantation owners abuse their repressed, disloyal slaves. In contrast, Eastman portrays white plantation owners who behave benignly towards their slaves.

Eastman uses quotations from various sources–including Uncle Tom's Cabin–to explain that slavery is a natural institution, and essential to life. [1] Like other novels of the genre, it contains much dialogue between masters and slaves, in which she portrays "the essential happiness of slaves in the South as compared to the inevitable sufferings of free blacks and the working classes in the North," as noted by the scholar Stephen Railton in the website Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture. [2]

Plot

The story is set in unnamed rural town in Virginia, which is frequented by several plantation owners living around it. The town relies on trade from the cotton plantations for its economy. Understanding this, the plantation owners, in contrast to their neighbors in surrounding towns, have adopted a benign approach toward their slaves to keep them peaceful and assure the safety of the town. Several characters in and around the town are introduced throughout the story, demonstrating how this process works and the delicate balance of such a process in action.

Characters

Reception

Although obscure today, the novel remains one of the most-read examples of the anti-Tom genre. Between 20,000 and 30,000 copies of Aunt Phillis's Cabin were sold upon its initial release in 1852. [3] The novel was the most commercially successful of the anti-Tom genre until the publication of The Lofty and the Lowly, or Good in All and None All Good in 1853, which sold 8,000 copies within the first weeks of publication. [4]

Publication history

Aunt Phillis's Cabin was released in 1852 – the same year that Uncle Tom's Cabin appeared in book form – by Lippincott, Grambo & Co. of Philadelphia (better known as J. B. Lippincott & Co.) As a major publishing house, the company released other anti-Tom novels, including Antifanaticism: A Tale of the South by Martha Haines Butt (1853), [5] and Mr. Frank, the Underground Mail-Agent by Vidi (1853). [5]

In other works

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Mary Henderson Eastman was an American historian and novelist who is noted for her works about Native American life. She was also an advocate of slavery in the United States. In response to Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery Uncle Tom's Cabin, Eastman defended Southern slaveholding society by writing Aunt Phillis's Cabin: or, Southern Life As It Is (1852), which earned her considerable fame. She was the wife of the American illustrator and army officer Seth Eastman.

References

  1. M.H. Eastman, Preface to Aunt Phillis's Cabin (1852)
  2. Pro-Slavery Novels: "Aunt Phillis' Cabin", Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture, University of Virginia, 1998–2009, accessed 23 February 2011
  3. "Mary Henderson Eastman", Pro-Slavery Novels, University of Virginia
  4. "McIntosh", Pro-Slavery Novels, University of Virginia
  5. 1 2 3 Stephen Railton, "Anti Uncle Tom Novels", Pro-Slavery Novels, Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture, University of Virginia, 1998–2009, accessed 23 February 2011
  6. Weld, Theodore Dwight, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001–2005. Retrieved May 15, 2007.
  7. Preface of Aunt Phillis's Cabin – M.H. Eastman (1852)
  8. "Frank Freeman's Barber Shop", Pro-slavery Novels, Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture website, University of Virginia
  9. "Uncle Robin and Runaway Tom", Pro-slavery Novels, Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture, University of Virginia