Читать книгу A Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, An Essay on Slavery - A. Woodward - Страница 9

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How mortifying the reflection, that such a work as Uncle Tom's Cabin, should have become so popular in England and America. As an American, we can but view it with shame and regret. Where is the Bible? Where are Shakespeare and Milton, and Addison and Johnson? And where are our own immortal poets and prose writers? Who reads the chaste and beautiful writings of Washington Irvin? What has become of our well written and instructive histories and biographies? Why is it that a filthy negro novel is found in every body's hand? Uncle Tom's Cabin! What is it? What can be expected from it? Will it improve the manners, the morals, or the literary tastes of our country-men, and fair country-women? No! Never! Its very touch is contaminating. Filth, pollution, and mental degradation, follow in the train of this class of writers. In what consists the merit of Uncle Tom's Cabin? It is hard to tell. Look at its dark design—its injustice—its falsehoods! Its vulgarisms, negroisms, localisms, and common place slang! Its tendency to pervert public taste, and corrupt public morals. How remarkable that a work of its character, should have been so much read and admired! We may boast of our intelligence and virtue to our hearts content, the reception of this work is a sad commentary on the age in which we live. We may boast of our religion; it is little else at last, but self-righteous phariseism! We throw around ourselves religion as a cloak; the more effectually to conceal our dark designs! Yes, verily, while we stab an erring, or unerring brother in the dark! We are all prostrate before the god of mammon, and there are but few of us, who would not sell our Saviour for less than thirty pieces of silver! Professedly we are Christians, but practically we are infidels! The Bible is no longer our guide. The fact is, we know but little about it, and care less! We profess to believe that it is the word of God; and yet it is laid aside for any impure negro novel, or other filthy tale, that may chance to fall in our way? Uncle Tom's Cabin has been read more within the past year, than the Bible had been for the last ten years, immediately preceding its appearance! Thousands of Christians have gloated over its pages with rapture and delight, from the rising till the setting sun, for days and nights in succession, who had not during their lives read a dozen chapters in the Bible! We will now remove the veil and look within. Its high time that the motives which prompt us to action were exposed to public gaze. Let us then take a peep at the "inward man."

A portion of our fellow citizens in another part of this Union, had, by no fault or agency of their own, become involved in the evils and calamities of slavery. We turned our eyes in that direction, and looked on the dark pictures. We felt that we were great sinners. Guilt pressed heavily upon us. "The sorrows of death compassed us: and the pains of hell got hold upon us;" and we "found trouble and sorrow." The anguish of our guilt was insupportable. We were in deep distress, and we longed for some thing to soothe and ease our troubled minds: but we did not, with the Psalmist, call upon the Lord to "deliver us." No! By no means, for we thought if we could find worse sinners than ourselves, it would afford us some relief.