Difference between revisions of "Week 10 Questions/Comments-327 09"
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(→Rose Williams’s Story in the Federal Writers’ Project Interviews, 1941.) |
Mpatterson (Talk | contribs) (→Louisa S. Cheeves McCord, “Review of Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” 1853) |
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I also very much liked this piece. Louisa’s writing was smart, witty and fantastically snarky! '''I thought this was a great form of rebuttal, undermining the integrity of the argument presented as well as the author by sarcastically saying that Stowe was only perpetuating common ideas and lies about slavery. ''' By over exaggerating several ideas in the book, such as: “The poor negro, astounded by the torrent of progress, which, bursting over the world, now hangs menacingly (for to the wild man is not civilization always menacing?) above him, would vainly follow with the stream, and is swept away in the current” Louisa discourages readers of Stowe to believe Stowes writing which Louisa shows to be fantastical and unreliable. -- Elyse Lawrence | I also very much liked this piece. Louisa’s writing was smart, witty and fantastically snarky! '''I thought this was a great form of rebuttal, undermining the integrity of the argument presented as well as the author by sarcastically saying that Stowe was only perpetuating common ideas and lies about slavery. ''' By over exaggerating several ideas in the book, such as: “The poor negro, astounded by the torrent of progress, which, bursting over the world, now hangs menacingly (for to the wild man is not civilization always menacing?) above him, would vainly follow with the stream, and is swept away in the current” Louisa discourages readers of Stowe to believe Stowes writing which Louisa shows to be fantastical and unreliable. -- Elyse Lawrence | ||
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| + | I love the sarcasm McCord uses in this review! She seems like she would have been an interesting woman to know, and certainly not someone you wanted to cross. It was interesting to see the slaveholder's critique of Stowe's work, particularly, McCord's comments on Mrs. Shelby. I liked the way McCord used Stowe's own words against her to point out Mrs. Shelby's hypocrisy in being appalled by the treatment of the slaves but defending them rather weakly. The defense of slavery at the end of the piece is interesting, but in some respects it doesn't seem to ring quite true with the author's earlier comments on slavery. On one, hand, the commentary on Mrs. Shelby's ineffectual complaints seems to show some sympathy towards slaves: "[...]it might be possible- quite as easy, perhaps- to dispose of [the slaves] in families to some humane neighbor [...], instead of tearing them apart and selling them to some brutal slave dealer..."pg. 219. On the other hand, however, McCord is completely unapologetic about the existence of slavery and her only acknowledgment of the ill-treatment of slaves is immediately followed by her insistence that the Christian values of American slave holders make their slavery better: "shorn of the barbarities with which a slavery established by conquest and maintained by brute force is always accompanied, we have begun to mingle it with the grace and amenities of the highest Christian civilization". The sheer arrogance behind this defense just floors me- slavery is not just an unfortunate part of life, no, slavery is actually God's will for the African people, and by enslaving them, slaveholders are actually saving them...Absolutely mind blowing but very well written. Clearly this woman was highly intelligent and knew it.- Melissa Patterson | ||
== Mary Boykin Chestnut’s diary, 1861 == | == Mary Boykin Chestnut’s diary, 1861 == | ||
