Uncle Tom's Cabin. Review on Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe

I finished reading the book ''Uncle Tom's Cabin about 3 months back. When I borrowed it from a friend and started reading it, I was not aware of its full background. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only was it a classic, it was also an extremely touching and an inspiring book that had had far-reaching consequences for a whole nation like U.S.

Because of his steadfast faith in God and kindness towards fellow human beings, be they black or white, fellow slaves or white oppressors, Uncle Tom's character seems to get elevated to the status of Jesus Christ. Just like Jesus Christ, Uncle Tom's death results in freedom and salvation of several hundred slaves.

I found the book very easy to understand and I found every chapter so touching that tears came into my eyes. In every scene, I found descriptions of cruelty and fresh horrors and my blood starting boiling with anger when I tried to imagine how it must have looked like at that time.

When I was a student in a secondary school in Nigeria, we had to learn during history classes stories of slave trade and how slaves were caught and transported from West Africa. These history books did not discuss the much more callous and inhuman practice of selling little children to turn them into slaves and the white slave traders kept black mistresses to breed more children with the only aim of trading them as cattle! Can anything be more revolting than this? The book was, in other words, quite an eye opener and has in fact changed my whole perspective about life.

Lastly, I wish to add that slavery may have ended as an institution, but it still exists and will perhaps continue to exist for as long as there is poverty for poverty drives people into extreme situations and circumstances. The little kid washing huge utensils in a tea stall, the young woman babysitting a toddle in a part while her own baby cries of hunger back in her village in Orissa are all examples of slavery.