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Uncle Tom's Cabin Unit of Study
The Great Scenes of Uncle Tom's Cabin Lesson Plan
By David J. Cope

Overview

While Uncle Tom's Cabin remains one of the most influential books in U.S. history, few people read it today. However, many of Harriet Beecher Stowe's characters and scenes still have a hold on our popular imagination. This lesson will introduce the students to those familiar scenes and characters. It will require them to analyze the changing interpretations of Uncle Tom's Cabin and to use their own creativity. In this lesson, students will study primary and secondary sources to discover the great scenes and characters from Uncle Tom's Cabin and how they influenced antebellum America.

Time Required

Three to four days, including background readings and discussions

Materials Needed

The Lesson

Anticipatory Set

  1. Ask the students to select a current reading from their English/literature class. Ask them, if they were to dramatize a scene from the reading:

    • What characters would they retain, drop, or add?
    • What dialogue would they retain, drop or add?
    • What difficulties arise in visualizing the written word?

  2. Background Information: Explain to the class that the visualization of Uncle Tom's Cabin began immediately. The first edition contained only seven illustrations: "The Title Page," "Eliza Tells Tom He Is Sold," "The Auction Sale," "The Freeman's Defense," "Eva and Tom in the Arbor," "Cassy Ministering to Tom," and "Safe in a Freeland." However, in the following year's edition, Hammatt Billings illustrated heading and concluding pictures for each chapter plus supplemental ones.

    Not content with mere illustrations, the Uncle Tom public demanded a stage presentation. Copyright laws at the time did not protect an author's work completely, so George Aiken of Troy, New York, adapted the novel into a six-act dramatization for his company in 1852. He moved his "melo-drama", a play with music, to New York City's National Theatre for an extended run. At one point, the Aiken version competed with H.J. Conroy's presentation at P.T. Barnum's American Museum. The popularity of the two productions spawned hundreds of "Tom Shows" that toured the nation, presenting bowdlerized scripts and usually filling the stage with racially stereotypical characterizations that bore little resemblance to Stowe's novel or its intent.

    Harriet Beecher Stowe's strict Calvinistic upbringing forbade her to attend dramatic performances. However, in 1854 or 1855, she wrote a series of dramatic readings, "The Christian Slave," for Mrs. Mary E. Webb, a free mulatto, to perform.

Procedures

  1. Divide the class into four groups. Give each group a different topic paper from the list of handouts below:

    • "Eliza Crossing the Ice Flow"
    • "The Introduction of Topsy"
    • "Eva's Death"
    • "Uncle Tom's Death"

    Explain that the groups will have three days to research their presentations for the class. Then on the assigned day, each group should present its findings.

  2. Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein inserted one of the most famous adaptations of Uncle Tom's Cabin into their Broadway and Hollywood musical, "The King and I." They based the musical number, "The Small House of Uncle Thomas," on an actual incident. Anna Leonowens, the governess for the court of Siam, read the novel to the king's wives. One wife even changed her name to that of the author's. (Eventually Leonowens contributed articles to the Atlantic Monthly and personally met Harriet Beecher Stowe.) View with the class the sequence in the movie version and discuss any racial stereotyping.

  3. Harriet Beecher Stowe occasionally denigrated her own writing style. However, she often used vivid words in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Give each student a copy of the "Harriet Beecher Stowe's Use of Language" handout. Ask them to write a response sentence to each passage.

  4. Stowe used extensive research and personal accounts to prepare an accurate portrait of the South. In one instance, however, with limited actual knowledge, she used her imagination rather than an actual depiction. In Chapter Fifteen, she describes St. Clare's New Orleans home. While architecturally inaccurate for the city, it allowed scenic designers great leeway for the stage. Have students draw a set design or create a shadow box for this scene from her description.
The carriage stopped in front of an ancient mansion, built in that odd mixture of Spanish and French style, of which there are specimens in some parts of New Orleans. It was built in the Moorish fashion,--a square building enclosing a courtyard, into which the carriage drove through an arched gateway. The court, in the inside, had evidently been arranged to gratify a picturesque and voluptuous ideality. Wide galleries ran all around the four sides, whose Moorish arches, slender pillars, and arabesque ornaments, carried the mind back, as in a dream, to the reign of oriental romance in Spain. In the middle of the court, a fountain threw high its silvery water, falling in a never-ceasing spray into a marble basin, ringed with a deep border of fragrant violets.... Around the fountain ran a walk, paved with a mosaic of pebbles, laid in various fanciful patterns; and this, again, was surrounded by turf, smooth as green velvet, while a carriage-drive enclosed the whole. Two large orange trees, now fragrant with blossoms, threw a delicious shade; and, ranged in a circle round upon the turf, were marble vases of arabesque sculpture, containing the choicest flowering plants of the tropics."

Assessment

Assess the students through observations made during the class discussions and through the written assignments and projects provided in the Procedures section.

Related Works

Video: "The King and I" (1956)

Interdisciplinary Links

The lesson on Uncle Tom's Cabin's great scenes and characters allows for great interdisciplinary links with the English and art curriculums.

This lesson was submitted by David J. Cope, honors teacher at Titusville Senior High School, Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Uncle Tom's Cabin Unit of Study
The Great Scenes of Uncle Tom's Cabin Lesson
Handout One: Harriet Beecher Stowe's Use of Language

Chapter Fourteen:

"The Mississippi! ... this river of dreams and wild romance has emerged to a reality scarcely less visionary and splendid. What other river of the world bears on its bosom to the ocean the wealth and enterprise of such another country?"

Chapter Fifteen:

"Of course, in a novel, people's hearts break, and they die, and that is the end of it; and in a story this is very convenient. But in real life we do not die when all that makes life bright dies to us. There is a most busy and important round of eating, drinking, dressing, walking, visiting, buying, selling, talking, reading, and all that makes up what is commonly called living, yet to be gone through."

Chapter Twenty-Two:

"... so well is the harp of human feeling strung, that nothing but a crash that breaks every string can wholly mar its harmony...."

Uncle Tom's Cabin Unit of Study
The Great Scenes of Uncle Tom's Cabin Lesson
Handout Two: Eliz on the Ice Flow

  1. Read Chapter Seven of Uncle Tom's Cabin, beginning with the line, "In consequences of all the various delays..." through the end of the chapter. Then, answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the plot line.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Harriet Beecher Stowe establish in this scene?




  2. Go to the website http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/sitemap.html; click on "UTC ON STAGE," then "Scripts," then "Aiken Version." Click on Act I, Scenes 5 and 6, and answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the scenes.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What differences occur between the Stowe and Aiken versions?




  3. Click "BACK" and then click on "THE CHRISTIAN SLAVE" in the narrative. Click on Act I, Scene 8, and answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the scene.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Stowe establish in this scene?





    4. What differences occur between the two Stowe versions?




  4. Instructions: Return to the homepage and "ILLUSTRATIONS." Then, click on "The Illustrated Edition" (1853). Scroll down and click on "Eliza on the Ice." Answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the illustration.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Hammatt Billings, the illustrator, establish?





    4. What differences occur between the illustration and Stowe's version?



Uncle Tom's Cabin Unit of Study
The Great Scenes of Uncle Tom's Cabin Lesson
Handout Three: The Introduction of Topsy


  1. Instructions: Read Chapter Twenty of Uncle Tom's Cabin, beginning with, "Sitting down before her...." up to, "Miss Ophelia's ideas of education ...." and then beginning with, "On one occasion ...." Through, "... contempt of the whole affair." Then, answer the following questions:


    1. Summarize the plot line.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Harriet Beecher Stowe establish in this scene?




  2. Go to the website http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/sitemap.html; click on "UTC ON STAGE," then "Scripts," then "Aiken Version." Click on Act II, Scene 2, then answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the scene.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Aiken establish in this scene?





    4. What differences occur between the Stowe and Aiken versions?




  3. Click "BACK" and then click on "THE CHRISTIAN SLAVE" in the narrative. Click on Act II, Scene 6, then answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the scene.





    2. What characters were involved?




    3. What tone did Stowe establish in this scene?




    4. What differences occur between the two Stowe versions?




  4. Return to the homepage and "ILLUSTRATIONS." Then, click on "The Illustrated Edition" (1853). Scroll down and click on "Topsy and Eva," "Topsy and Ophelia," and "Topsy Dancing." Answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the scene.





    2. What characters were involved?




    3. What tone did Hammatt Billings, the illustrator, establish?




    4. What differences occur between the illustrations and Stowe's version?



Uncle Tom's Cabin Unit of Study
The Great Scenes of Uncle Tom's Cabin Lesson
Handout Four: Eva's Death


  1. Read Chapter Twenty-Six of Uncle Tom's Cabin, beginning with "what do you mean, Tom?" through the end of the chapter. Then, answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the plot line.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Harriet Beecher Stowe establish in this scene?




  2. Go to the website http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/sitemap.html; click on "UTC ON STAGE," then "Scripts," then "Aiken Version." Click on Act III, Scenes 3 and 4, then answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the scenes.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Aiken establish in these scenes?





    4. What differences occur between the Stowe and Aiken versions?




  3. Click "BACK" and then click on "THE CHRISTIAN SLAVE" in the narrative. Click on Act II, Scene 11, and answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the scene.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Stowe establish in this scene?





    4. What differences occur between the two Stowe versions?




  4. Return to the homepage and "ILLUSTRATIONS." Then, click on "The Illustrated Edition" (1853). Scroll down and click on "Eva dying," and "Angels receiving Eva in heaven." Answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the illustration.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Hammatt Billings, the illustrator, establish?





    4. What differences occur between the illustration and Stowe's version?



Uncle Tom's Cabin Unit of Study
The Great Scenes of Uncle Tom's Cabin Lesson
Handout Five: Uncle Tom's Death


  1. Read Chapter Forty of Uncle Tom's Cabin, beginning with, "Scenes of blood and cruelty are shocking..." through the end of the chapter. Then, answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the plot line.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Harriet Beecher Stowe establish in this scene?




  2. Go to the website http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/sitemap.html; click on "UTC ON STAGE," then "Scripts," then "Aiken Version." Click on Act VI, Scenes 5 and 6, and answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the scenes.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Aiken establish in these scenes?





    4. What differences occur between the Stowe and Aiken versions?




  3. Click "BACK" and then click on "THE CHRISTIAN SLAVE" in the narrative. Click on Act III, Scene 14, then answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the scene.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Stowe establish in this scene?





    4. What differences occur between the two Stowe versions?




  4. Return to the homepage and "ILLUSTRATIONS." Then, click on "The Illustrated Edition" (1853). Scroll down and click on "Tom's final beating," and "George Shelby finds Tom dying." Answer the following questions:

    1. Summarize the illustrations.





    2. What characters were involved?





    3. What tone did Hammatt Billings, the illustrator, establish?





    4. What differences occur between the illustration and Stowe's version?