Uncle Tom's Cabin in Hull
By Lauren Eglen
‘So this is the little lady who made this big war’. These were the words reportedly spoken by President Abraham Lincoln upon meeting author Harriet Beecher Stowe. He was referring to the publication of her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Written in response to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which made providing aid and assistance to a runaway slave illegal, this anti-slavery novel has been regarded as one of the most widely read and influential books of its time. So much so that a number of historians attribute the novel as one of the contributing factors in the outbreak of the American Civil War. The story first appeared in The National Era, a Washington anti-slavery newspaper with a national readership. It was first published as forty-one weekly instalments between 5 June 1851 and 1 April 1852, reaching at least 50,000 readers.[1] The sheer popularity of the weekly episodes led the novel to be published in its entirety on 20 March 1852, selling 10,000 copies in its first week and 300,000 by the end of its first year.[2]
The Novel
Uncle Tom’s Cabin follows the parallel stories of African American slaves Tom and Eliza. Tom is a middle-aged man with wife and children, and Eliza, a younger woman with a child called Harry. After running up large debts, plantation owner Mr Shelby is forced to sell Tom and Harry to slave trader Mr Haley, or risk losing everything. Overhearing Shelby’s conversation with his wife, Eliza decides to flee North to freedom with her son, warning Tom before she leaves. Despite pursuit from Haley, Eliza evades capture across the part-frozen Ohio River, seeks refuge in a Quaker settlement, who agree to help transport them to safety, and is reunited with her husband George as they travel to Canada. Meanwhile, Tom, in order to save other slaves on the plantation from sale, leaves his family and Shelby’s son George with whom he had developed a strong friendship. He is taken aboard a boat on the Mississippi to a slave market. While on board, Tom dives in and saves a young white girl named Eva when she falls into the river. Grateful, her father Augustine St Clare agrees to buy Tom and take him back to New Orleans where Tom becomes good friends with Eva, with whom he shares a devout Christianity. However, after two years with the St Clares, Eva grows ill, slowly weakening before dying with a vision of heaven before her. Eva’s death has such a profound effect on those around her that St Clare agrees |
to give Tom his freedom, however he himself is killed before he can act on his promise. Upon St Clare’s death Tom is sold to brutish plantation owner Simon Legree and is taken to Louisiana. Though his hardships test his faith, Tom experiences visions of both Christ and Eva which serve to renew his spiritual strength and give him the courage to help fellow slaves, Emmeline and Cassy, escape to freedom. Upon Emmeline and Cassy’s escape, Tom refuses to tell Legree where they have gone, and as a result is beaten. At this time, George Shelby arrives to buy Tom’s freedom, a promise he had made upon Tom’s initial sale to Haley. However, George is too late and can only watch as Tom dies. Meanwhile, Cassy and Emmeline have taken a boat to freedom and discover that Eliza is Cassy’s long-lost daughter. The reunited family move to Liberia, the African nation created for former American slaves. On George Shelby’s return to his farm, he sets all the slaves free, urging them to remember Tom’s sacrifice every time they look at his cabin and encouraging them to lead a pious life.
Stage Performance
Stowe’s efforts to awaken her large Northern readership from their apathy, and stress the necessity of ending slavery, was met with vast success. Not only did the novel have a profound effect on its American readership, but was met with great popularity across the world. This was especially the case in England where The Times reported ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin is at every railway book-stall in England, and in every third traveller’s hand. The book is a decided hit’.[3] The success of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was such that it was almost immediately translated into various stage performances, first appearing in New York and quickly spreading across Europe. Between 1852 and 1930 hundreds of ‘Tom Shows’ were produced by numerous theatre companies, the most notable in England being the Jarrett & Palmer company. While Henry C. Jarrett and Harry Palmer were on the edge of retirement, they saw the opportunity to capitalise on Uncle Tom’s theatrical success, with Palmer suggesting ‘slave life, as it existed in the South in ante-war days, had never been truthfully depicted in Europe, and he resolved to produce ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ across the water with genuine southern darkies in the cast’.[4] While the majority of previous ‘Tom Shows’, and Jarrett & Palmer themselves, cast white actors in blackface as their main characters (including William Calder as Uncle Tom as seen in the Theatre Royal playbill), the producers were also committed to incorporating large numbers of African Americans in their production. Their casting advertisement read ‘Wanted: 100 octoroons, 100 quadroons, 100 mulattoes and 100 decidedly black men, women and children capable of singing slave choruses.[5] Opening at the Booth Theatre in New York on 18 February 1878 as a prelude to their European Tour, the company set off for the continent in August.[6]
Stowe’s efforts to awaken her large Northern readership from their apathy, and stress the necessity of ending slavery, was met with vast success. Not only did the novel have a profound effect on its American readership, but was met with great popularity across the world. This was especially the case in England where The Times reported ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin is at every railway book-stall in England, and in every third traveller’s hand. The book is a decided hit’.[3] The success of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was such that it was almost immediately translated into various stage performances, first appearing in New York and quickly spreading across Europe. Between 1852 and 1930 hundreds of ‘Tom Shows’ were produced by numerous theatre companies, the most notable in England being the Jarrett & Palmer company. While Henry C. Jarrett and Harry Palmer were on the edge of retirement, they saw the opportunity to capitalise on Uncle Tom’s theatrical success, with Palmer suggesting ‘slave life, as it existed in the South in ante-war days, had never been truthfully depicted in Europe, and he resolved to produce ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ across the water with genuine southern darkies in the cast’.[4] While the majority of previous ‘Tom Shows’, and Jarrett & Palmer themselves, cast white actors in blackface as their main characters (including William Calder as Uncle Tom as seen in the Theatre Royal playbill), the producers were also committed to incorporating large numbers of African Americans in their production. Their casting advertisement read ‘Wanted: 100 octoroons, 100 quadroons, 100 mulattoes and 100 decidedly black men, women and children capable of singing slave choruses.[5] Opening at the Booth Theatre in New York on 18 February 1878 as a prelude to their European Tour, the company set off for the continent in August.[6]
Uncle Tom's Cabin in Hull
The Jarrett & Palmer company was the first show in Britain to use Black performers and included three separate troupes in its tour of Europe. The company’s production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin came to Hull on numerous occasions, including on 4 November 1878 at the Theatre Royal. The new Theatre Royal in which Uncle Tom’s Cabin was performed, was built in 1871, after the previous theatre had burnt down, on part of the site of the Queen’s Theatre, Paragon Street and had a capacity of 1500. As can be seen by the playbill below, the production was keen to emphasise its use of ‘inimitable coloured speciality artistes’. These included The Sable Quintette, an African American singing group made up of Luca from Richmond, VA, Taylor Charleston, S.C., Waddy from Hampton, VA, Carrie Thomas, a soprano from Hampton, Lizzie Hall from Atlanta, GA and Isabella Miles from New Orleans.[7] The show also included the famous Jubilee Singers. The presence of the Jubilee Singers in Hull as part of the production was advertised by the Hull Packet on 8 November 1878 stating’ the famous Jubilee Singers will appear throughout the Play, and in various scenes render their quaint, weird and peculiar songs, duetts, quartettes, choruses…’.[8] Though these were not the original Fisk Jubilee Singers, and Jarrett & Palmer were not the first to include Jubilee Singers in their shows, they did significantly add to their popularity, utilising harmonised versions of negro spirituals and replacing previously used minstrel tunes with authentic African American music.[9] For more information on Jubilee Singers in Hull click here.
Moreover, with the ongoing popularity of ‘Tom Shows’ came the increasing desire to create a spectacle. Theatre-goers in Hull at the time would have been treated to realistic scenes of the escape of Eliza and her child on the ice floe and the crossing of the Ohio River.[10] During Eva’s ascension to heaven, she was lifted from her deathbed by piano wire and ‘floated amongst the midst of a hovering choice, enclosed with an intermixture of gauze drops which were raised in turn, and enhanced with calcium lighting’.[11] At the end of the play, during Tom’s death scene, spectators would have seen ‘three tiers of profile pink and white clouds, edged with gold and silver spangles painted on the stage floor […] the floodlights backstage were turned on, and the holes became little golden stars twinkling through the glow — revealing a winged Eva’.[12] In their use of spectacle, Jarrett & Palmer’s Plantation Festival scene featured no less than 300 genuine freed African Americans, making the producers the acknowledged leaders in the presentation of large numbers of Black performers on stage.
The Jarrett & Palmer company was the first show in Britain to use Black performers and included three separate troupes in its tour of Europe. The company’s production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin came to Hull on numerous occasions, including on 4 November 1878 at the Theatre Royal. The new Theatre Royal in which Uncle Tom’s Cabin was performed, was built in 1871, after the previous theatre had burnt down, on part of the site of the Queen’s Theatre, Paragon Street and had a capacity of 1500. As can be seen by the playbill below, the production was keen to emphasise its use of ‘inimitable coloured speciality artistes’. These included The Sable Quintette, an African American singing group made up of Luca from Richmond, VA, Taylor Charleston, S.C., Waddy from Hampton, VA, Carrie Thomas, a soprano from Hampton, Lizzie Hall from Atlanta, GA and Isabella Miles from New Orleans.[7] The show also included the famous Jubilee Singers. The presence of the Jubilee Singers in Hull as part of the production was advertised by the Hull Packet on 8 November 1878 stating’ the famous Jubilee Singers will appear throughout the Play, and in various scenes render their quaint, weird and peculiar songs, duetts, quartettes, choruses…’.[8] Though these were not the original Fisk Jubilee Singers, and Jarrett & Palmer were not the first to include Jubilee Singers in their shows, they did significantly add to their popularity, utilising harmonised versions of negro spirituals and replacing previously used minstrel tunes with authentic African American music.[9] For more information on Jubilee Singers in Hull click here.
Moreover, with the ongoing popularity of ‘Tom Shows’ came the increasing desire to create a spectacle. Theatre-goers in Hull at the time would have been treated to realistic scenes of the escape of Eliza and her child on the ice floe and the crossing of the Ohio River.[10] During Eva’s ascension to heaven, she was lifted from her deathbed by piano wire and ‘floated amongst the midst of a hovering choice, enclosed with an intermixture of gauze drops which were raised in turn, and enhanced with calcium lighting’.[11] At the end of the play, during Tom’s death scene, spectators would have seen ‘three tiers of profile pink and white clouds, edged with gold and silver spangles painted on the stage floor […] the floodlights backstage were turned on, and the holes became little golden stars twinkling through the glow — revealing a winged Eva’.[12] In their use of spectacle, Jarrett & Palmer’s Plantation Festival scene featured no less than 300 genuine freed African Americans, making the producers the acknowledged leaders in the presentation of large numbers of Black performers on stage.
The popularity of Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a stage show in Hull continued throughout the nineteenth century, with the Hull Daily Mail writing in 1892 ‘It is about played out, so far as we are concerned but the public still “hanker” after it to judge by the large audience last night’.[13] Such a ‘hankering’ for Uncle Tom’s Cabin in England led to the term ‘Tomitudes’ to describe people’s penchant for the slave.[14] As a result of such Tom-mania, the characters saw their re-creation not only in theatre shows but also in visual and material culture. Images of Uncle Tom and other characters were widely disseminated on posters, postcards and lithographs. The Wilberforce House Museum in Hull holds a collection of Uncle Tom figurines, plates and a pottery which attest to the popularity of the novel. The image to the right depicts a stoneware figure of Uncle Tom and Eva. This particular type of figurine is a Staffordshire flatback, so named because the back has been left flat and undecorated so that it can rest on a chimney breast. Such flatbacks were made from the late 1830s by over 100 manufacturers in Staffordshire and were part of English popular culture from the working classes through to the middle classes from twenty years before the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.[15] Therefore, the fact that Uncle Tom is depicted on a flatback demonstrates how familiar the story had become in Britain. To see other Uncle Tom memorabilia held at Wilberforce House Museum click here.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin on Screen
Uncle Tom’s Cabin translated not only to the stage, but also the screen, with the number of film adaptations produced in the early twentieth century making it the most filmed story of the silent era.[16] The novel saw at least nine film adaptations between 1903 and 1927. The 1927 version was directed by Harry A. Pollard, who had starred as Uncle Tom in the 1913 film, and shifted its focus from Tom to Eliza (who was played by Pollard’s wife).[17] African American actor James B. Lowe who was cast as Uncle Tom, though appearing on screen for less than nine minutes, had a carefully cultivated image for the films, ensuring audiences saw him as respectable and courteous.[18] For clips from the film click here. Lowe was born in Georgia and after high school moved to Chicago to open his own tailoring shop.[19] After serving in WWI and making it to quartermaster-sargeant, a rank held by only four Black men in the war, he found employment in a tailor's shop in Hollywood.[20] It was not long before the many actors and directors that patronised the shop called on him to portray small parts, with his big opportunity coming with his casting in a play of ‘Emperor Jones’. The son of a slave himself, Lowe visited Hull on 5 March 1928, travelling to Wilberforce House Museum to see the relics of slavery including branding irons, whips, collars and shackles.[21] Arrangements were also made for him to speak on ‘Wilberforce and Slavery’ at the Hull Luncheon Club. Lowe regarded Wilberforce as one of the greatest factors in the emancipation of Black people, providing an example for the rest of the world. Thus, demonstrating that Hull’s Black past extends far beyond the boundaries of its city, with people of African descent from across the globe regarding it as part of their history
Uncle Tom’s Cabin translated not only to the stage, but also the screen, with the number of film adaptations produced in the early twentieth century making it the most filmed story of the silent era.[16] The novel saw at least nine film adaptations between 1903 and 1927. The 1927 version was directed by Harry A. Pollard, who had starred as Uncle Tom in the 1913 film, and shifted its focus from Tom to Eliza (who was played by Pollard’s wife).[17] African American actor James B. Lowe who was cast as Uncle Tom, though appearing on screen for less than nine minutes, had a carefully cultivated image for the films, ensuring audiences saw him as respectable and courteous.[18] For clips from the film click here. Lowe was born in Georgia and after high school moved to Chicago to open his own tailoring shop.[19] After serving in WWI and making it to quartermaster-sargeant, a rank held by only four Black men in the war, he found employment in a tailor's shop in Hollywood.[20] It was not long before the many actors and directors that patronised the shop called on him to portray small parts, with his big opportunity coming with his casting in a play of ‘Emperor Jones’. The son of a slave himself, Lowe visited Hull on 5 March 1928, travelling to Wilberforce House Museum to see the relics of slavery including branding irons, whips, collars and shackles.[21] Arrangements were also made for him to speak on ‘Wilberforce and Slavery’ at the Hull Luncheon Club. Lowe regarded Wilberforce as one of the greatest factors in the emancipation of Black people, providing an example for the rest of the world. Thus, demonstrating that Hull’s Black past extends far beyond the boundaries of its city, with people of African descent from across the globe regarding it as part of their history
It is evident that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was firmly embedded in British popular culture. Not only was the novel one of the best sellers of its time, but it spawned plays, films and material artefacts that remained popular into the early twentieth century and continues to influence depictions of Black people in popular culture to this day.
Footnotes
[1] ‘Uncle Tom’s Serialization: The National Era Text’, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/uncletom/erahp.html [accessed 31 July 2017].
[2] Harriet Beecher Stowe Centre, https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/utc/ [accessed 31 July 2017].
[3] The Times, September 3 1852 in Critical Essays on Harriet Beecher Stowe ed. by Elizabeth Ammons (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co, 1980), p.25.
[4] "A Famous Manager Gone," The New York Times, 21 July 1879, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin on the American Stage and Screen, by John W. Frick (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,2012), p.128.
[5] ‘George F. Rowe’s Script’, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/onstage/scripts/rowehp.html [accessed 31st July 2017].
[6] New York Herald, 17 February 1878.
[7] ‘Daily Dispatch’ Virginia Chronicle, 19 July 1878, http://virginiachronicle.com/cgi-bin/virginia?a=d&d=DD18780719.1.1 [accessed 31 July 2017].
[8] Hull Packet, 8 November 1878, p.1.
[9] Frick, p.139.
[10] The Herald, 19 February 1878.
[11] Frick, p.130.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Hull Daily Mail,13th December 1892, p.4.
[14] Jo Ann-Morgan, Uncle Tom’s Cabin as Visual Culture (Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2007), p.49.
[15] ‘Virtue Displayed: The Tie-Ins of Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/interpret/exhibits/stevenson/stevenson.html [accessed 31 July 2017].
[16] ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin on Film’, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/onstage/films/fihp.html, [accessed 31 July 2017].
[17] Frick, p.211.
[18] ‘Universal Super Jewel Production’, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/onstage/films/mv27hp.html [accessed 31st July 2017].
[19] Hull Daily Mail, 3 March 1928.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[1] ‘Uncle Tom’s Serialization: The National Era Text’, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/uncletom/erahp.html [accessed 31 July 2017].
[2] Harriet Beecher Stowe Centre, https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/utc/ [accessed 31 July 2017].
[3] The Times, September 3 1852 in Critical Essays on Harriet Beecher Stowe ed. by Elizabeth Ammons (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co, 1980), p.25.
[4] "A Famous Manager Gone," The New York Times, 21 July 1879, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin on the American Stage and Screen, by John W. Frick (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,2012), p.128.
[5] ‘George F. Rowe’s Script’, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/onstage/scripts/rowehp.html [accessed 31st July 2017].
[6] New York Herald, 17 February 1878.
[7] ‘Daily Dispatch’ Virginia Chronicle, 19 July 1878, http://virginiachronicle.com/cgi-bin/virginia?a=d&d=DD18780719.1.1 [accessed 31 July 2017].
[8] Hull Packet, 8 November 1878, p.1.
[9] Frick, p.139.
[10] The Herald, 19 February 1878.
[11] Frick, p.130.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Hull Daily Mail,13th December 1892, p.4.
[14] Jo Ann-Morgan, Uncle Tom’s Cabin as Visual Culture (Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2007), p.49.
[15] ‘Virtue Displayed: The Tie-Ins of Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/interpret/exhibits/stevenson/stevenson.html [accessed 31 July 2017].
[16] ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin on Film’, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/onstage/films/fihp.html, [accessed 31 July 2017].
[17] Frick, p.211.
[18] ‘Universal Super Jewel Production’, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/onstage/films/mv27hp.html [accessed 31st July 2017].
[19] Hull Daily Mail, 3 March 1928.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.