Uncle Tom's Cabin

Have you ever read Uncle Tom's Cabin? I didn't think so. Uncle Tom's Cabin is the novel you've probably heard about but never read. It happens to be the book that fanned the flames of our nation into the Civil War. When president Abraham Lincoln met the author Harriet Beecher Stowe, he reportedly said to her, "So this is the little lady who made this big war." Uncle Tom's Cabin is the story of a slave named Tom who is sold to the south and has to endure unspeakable treatment as the personal property of the degenerate cotton plantation owner Simon Legree. Simon Legree, whose power hungry nature drives him to complete insanity and extreme cruelty, is the very definition of the term "white trash." The slave Tom happens to be a devout Christian who is constantly proving to everyone around him that being black is not equal to being without a soul. What is so heart -gripping about this novel is the author's constant appeal to the Christian conscience of the readers. What is terrifying is that so many of her readers used Christianity as a means to justify their positions on slavery. This is an excellent example of what happens when Christians build walls around themselves and cease to extend the love of Christ to those different than themselves. It shows the tragic consequences of what happens when the Body of Christ neglects the teaching of Scripture that "In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female." This novel should be required reading for every Christian in the free world.