First & Last Name
Dr. Martin
English 2327 3W1
6 August 2007 this essay was written when page-length requirements were shorter 
American Literature: Racism in America
	Racism has been apart of human nature since history has been recorded. Prejudice against race and religion is something that still exists in the modern world today. Even at the beginning of the formation of the United States, there was obvious racism going on against the Native Americans. Events such as the Trial of Tears, which pushed thousands of Native Americans from Georgia to the western territories, have left a bitter reminder to minorities of how cruel people can be. During the California Gold Rush, there were thousands of Natives dying because of the treatment they endured at the hands of European settlers invading from the East. During the same era there was also discrimination against the Asian population migrating to the United States searching for work.
	As American settlements expanded, a new face to racism was created. This face was constructed of tens of thousands of Africans who were brought over and sold to plantation owners in the southern United States. These Africans were seen as a lesser people, basically objects, whose sole purpose was to work on the fields. This idea that smothered these poor people denied them of all rights and made them other’s property. Even after the Civil War, many people still today see other races such as the Africans as a lower status because of the color of their skin. An example seen just this past year is of a Georgia high school that had their first interracial prom. Slavery provided cheap labor to the colonial plantations. This cheap labor provided great wealth and power to the plantation owners and they were willing to fight to protect a system that provided them with these benefits. Some authors during the slave era however, bore witness to the wrong of slavery and this discrimination and had the bravery to document it and write materials in opposition. Harriet Beecher Stowe was one such author and wrote about slavery and racism her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
	Some critics of Stowe’s imply that she didn’t go far enough in condemning slavery even though they believed she was condemning stereotypes. Stereotypes are a common form of prejudice among individuals of race and religion in today’s society, and “because these stereotyped notions… appear in Uncle Tom's Cabin… [as] Stowe had intended, it would seem that Stowe's attitude toward chattel slavery… was ambivalent” (Piacentino). Interestingly, although slavery was long ago abolished, these stereotypes that were built from the time of the slave days are still seen today in modern society. It would seem that Stowe was actually taking on the much more difficult challenge of overcoming prejudice in her writing.
The result of these stereotypes is the poor treatment these slaves endured and the lack of rights they lived with. As one of Stowe’s characters, Eliza argues with her “husband” proclaiming “‘but you were married to me, by the minister, as much as if you’d been a white man!’ said Eliza simply. ‘Don’t you know a slave can’t be married?’ There is no law in this country for that” (Stowe 1675). As time has passed slaves slowly gained rights to become more equal to non-slaves but the effort to end all forms of discrimination continue today. There are headlines in today’s newspapers that show how minorities are using their rights to fight against offensive stereotypes. In a recent local event, Frisco High School was forced to change their mascot name from the “coons” to the “raccoons” because of the degrading stereotype the term implied.
	Early “film historian Donald Bogle was right to pinpoint mammies, coons, mulattoes, and Uncle Toms as key iconographical figures in the lexicon of stereotypes of blacks in the early 20th century, and he was also right to suggest that the popularity of Harriet Beecher Stowe had much to do… with these icons” as they developed during Stowe’s time (Wallace 147).  Stowe describes the slave trade within her novel and shows how slave owners refer to their slaves as “niggers” (Stowe 1697). These slang terms can still be seen in use today with songs within the hip-hop genre of today. Artists continually use these terms and icons to refer to themselves even if they are in a derogatory manor, while others use them against outside races or sexes to verbally humiliate or purposes anger individuals with the offensive manor. 
	Stowe points out other forms of discrimination occur today as they did then among the sexes, “her novel propose as the foundation for a new democratic era, in place of masculine authority, feminine nurture” (Ammons 164). “Stowe displays in Uncle Tom’s Cabin a facility for converting essentially repressive concepts of femininity into a positive alternative system (Ammons 163). Stowe strongly incorporates her feelings on motherhood to show the true value of females in society rather than how the public looks down upon woman and their role in life. Stowe asks her reader “if it were your Harry, mother, or your Willie, that were torn from you by a brutal trader, to-morrow morning… How many miles could you make in those few brief hours...” (Stowe 1677)? Stowe uses this analogy to show her strong feelings on the matter and draw mothers into the emotional connection between Eliza and Harry. 
Even today some people are seen arguing a woman’s role in society, more notably, the military. People are debating the appropriateness of woman being placed on the front lines or cockpits of fighter jets in a shooting war. While the societies of some counties have accepted placing a woman in harms way, thus granting equal rights, clearly it is not a position that most Americans are comfortable with yet. 
	As society evolves, new problems will develop. As these methods of corruption and discrimination take shape, contemporary authors will write to expose people to the issues just as previous authors such as Stowe had done. Her writing helped eliminate slavery in the United States, but did not take away the racism that came along with slavery. Stowe, however, was able to show her readers the prejudice that was occurring and still is occurring today. With discrimination still in practice, it appears as if some people are still as ignorant as they were hundreds of years ago. Hopefully authors, like Stowe, will be able to show how absurd these forms of discrimination are and one day bring an end to it.

Works Cited MLA requirements have changed since this essay was written
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Ed. Nina Baym. Vol. B.6th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2003. page numbers here
Paicntino, Ed. "Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin" Explicator 58.3 (2000): 135+ . Library Reference Center. EBSCOhost. Collin County Community College. 4 Aug. 2007 <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=3318873&site=lrc-live>.
Richards, Jason. "Imitation Nation: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Making of African American Selfhood in Uncle Tom's Cabin." Novel: A Forum on Fiction 39.2 (2006): 204-20. EBSCO Host. Collin County Community College. 4 Aug. 2007 <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=24347695&site=ehost-live>.
Wallace, Michele. "Uncle Tom's Cabin Before and After Jim Crow Era." The Drama Review 44.1 (2000): 137-56. EBSCO Host. Collin County Community College. 4 Aug. 2007 <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=12&hid=6&sid=319d5b4f-2381-4a0d-ab02-776e2436ca76%40sessionmgr3>.