Each book has its own destiny. Some remain hidden in the desks of their authors, others gather dust on the bookshelves, and still others drive readers crazy. The heroes of the latter begin to live their own lives and sometimes have a much greater influence on people than real-life characters. Uncle Tom can be safely attributed to such number: in the register of "101 most influential non-existent personalities", the hero of the novel Harriet Beecher Stowe takes the honorable 11th place. But everything could have turned out completely differently …
At the meeting, Abraham Lincoln said to Harriet Beecher Stowe: "And such a small woman caused such a big war!" He was a good diplomat, this president, and, as befits a diplomat, he was cunning: "Uncle Tom's hut", released in 1852, was initially noticed only by abolitionists - fighters for the liberation of blacks, and a bunch of housewives. So, of course, it was not the little wife of a theology professor who raised the North against the South. Strictly speaking, events developed exactly the opposite.
ON SECOND ROLE
The United States was on the brink of collapse. In the middle of the 19th century, the southern states were ready to secede and create their own confederation. They felt deeply hurt. Only a few decades ago, rich and powerful, they led a victorious struggle for independence. But now they have become "second class" states. And all because in the decades that have passed since the declaration of independence, industry has developed in the northern states, the population has arrived, and in the South, thanks to the institution of slavery, stagnation has reigned.
The country changed, the Congress also changed. And where the noble speeches of Washington, Adams, Jefferson were previously sounded, now northerners-Yankees have settled, whom all southerners considered corrupt, forgot about God, honor and decency. What is there! At the meetings of Congress, fights broke out every now and then. It was worth fighting against the noble King George to put Yankees with dirty nails on their necks!
But these are emotions. In reality, things were even worse. Low prices for cotton grown by the South, high prices for industrial goods produced by the North, led to the fact that the North grew richer from year to year, and the South became impoverished, spending all its energy on "looking decent." Congress did nothing to rectify the situation.
The northerners had a permanent majority, therefore they dictated laws and tariffs. Why? - Simple arithmetic. 20 million people lived in the North, and only 12 in the South, and 4 million of them were slaves who did not have the right to vote. So the southerners could not change the existing state of affairs "by constitutional means".
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And now they survived: Abraham Lincoln, a northerner, the son of a poor farmer, a former farm laborer, a lumberjack, trained to be a lawyer, was elected the 16th President of the United States. He arrived in Washington in a single van: he simply could not find more luggage.
The election of the Yankees as president was the last straw. The southern states took an "unconstitutional step": they announced their secession and the creation of the Southern Confederation. Then the federal government decided to suppress the "rebellion" by force.
OUR CASE IS RIGHT
Europe, not understanding the circumstances of the case, was indignant: “How so? The government of the country, which proclaimed freedom as an inalienable human right, went to war on some of its citizens. And what for? Because they decided to exercise their right to self-determination? The sympathy of the European public was on the side of the southerners. Their attempt to leave the union seemed to the Europeans almost a new War of Independence. The first two years of the war were the hardest years in Abraham Lincoln's life. The troops of the northerners suffered defeat after defeat. The Confederates (southerners), considering themselves right, believing that they were upholding the covenants of the glorious Revolution and their personal freedom, fought selflessly. The backward agrarian South beat the strong industrial North with the full sympathy of the rest of the world, which actively helped the Confederates. Southerners received consignments of weapons, ammunition, money,warships were built for them at British shipyards. And the northerners (federalists), for all other sins, were accused of unemployment among the British textile workers: the northerners' fleet blocked the coast, and cotton from the southern states did not come to England.
Lincoln realized that as long as the European community was helping the southerners, he would not be able to win this war. What to do?
GUNS CANNOT FIGHT WITH IDEAS
This is what Catherine II once said when she learned about the revolution in France. It is unlikely that Lincoln was familiar with the statement of our empress, but he came to a similar conclusion and understood: the North is suffering defeat after defeat, because the government from the very beginning put the wrong idea at the fore. It went to war against its own fellow citizens for the sake of the integrity of the nation and state. But on the other side of the ocean, this idea did not work. And what are the principles of statehood for the Europeans when they have made three revolutions in a row - one after the other? And all for the sake of personal human rights, for the sake of freedom, conscience, equality and brotherhood. Of course, the southerners are closer to them, they sympathize with them. This means that in order to lure the Europeans over to their side, it is necessary to urgently change the military "slogan", change the color of the military campaign, and urgently release someone. Fortunately, in the South there is someone to free.
RELEASE IMMEDIATELY
From a moral point of view, the Democrat Lincoln was deeply repugnant to slavery, but he was not an abolitionist. He had more important goals. At first, he did not even think about freeing the blacks and thus finally alienating the southern states. On the contrary, trying to come to an agreement with the Confederates, he repeatedly promised them not to interfere in their affairs, including issues of slavery. Too many new problems would bring the immediate emancipation of the slaves.
Even a year and a half after the outbreak of the Civil War, in August 1862, he wrote: “If I could keep the union without freeing a single slave, I would do it. If I could keep the union, freeing some slaves and not freeing others, I would have done so ….
But that was in August, and in September Lincoln issued a proclamation of emancipation: from January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebellious states were declared free people. (While the blacks in states loyal to the federal government remained in slavery.)
In one of his speeches, Lincoln used a biblical way to say: “A house divided in two cannot stand. I believe that a system of governance in which half stands for slavery and half for its abolition cannot be persistent. I don’t want to wait for the United States to fall apart, for the house to collapse …”. By stating this, Lincoln seemed to demonstrate that he is not so much interested in the integrity of the state as in moral issues. And - more than that! - he generally risks the existence of the state for the sake of a high moral goal.
YOUR OUTPUT, TOM
It was then that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" came in handy, describing in paints the horrors of slavery, but passed unnoticed ten years ago. This is where the death of the southerners lurked …
Alarmed by the question of the abolition of slavery, wanting to learn more about the plight of black slaves, the general public rushed to the "Hut" - and what she learned from it was a new shock for her. So, it turns out that the southerners are defending and what the northerners have declared war on!
The Shack did as much to explain President Lincoln's new position as thousands of agitators could not.
The Confederates no longer looked like freedom fighters, but, on the contrary, ordinary rebels. Indeed, if some part of citizens goes against their own state for the sake of their "inalienable rights", then why do these same citizens deny the same rights to their other fellow citizens, albeit blacks? With what cry are they then fighting? "Freedom for the slave owners"?
It may sound bold, but from the moment European public opinion turned its back on the southerners, Lincoln won his war. Harriet Beecher Stowe became famous. And Uncle Tom - gained immortality.
Natalia AGAFONOVA