Uncle Tom's Cabin Ch. 13-18

I think there is a lot of misconception about this book.  I have always heard that it was just about slaves being beaten, that is not true.  I am on Chapter 18 and so far she has only had slave owners who were kind to their slaves.  She also talks about how people thought of the slaves, that they were simple and lowly (The other title of the book is "Life Among the Lowly").  She doesn't realize it but even Mrs. Stowe believed they wer a "child like race".  Treat a human being like a child and they will act like a child.  She expresses that is why they were so slow, it is because they were suppressed into submission.  She also talks a lot about how people will have to answer for their sins at the Judgement Seat of Christ.
Happy Reading,
Missy

Uncle Tom's Cabin Ch. 11 and 12

Chapter 11 and 12 reintroduce George and let us know what he has been doing.  He is mostly white and has passed himself off as a rich white guy.  Chapter 12 has Uncle Tom with Harley buying up more slaves and what happens when the negroes are separated from their families.  Mrs. Stowe uses a lot of sarcasm when talking about the negroes (I have chosen to use therm negroes since that is what is used in her book).  If you read the book please keep this in mind.
I now want to address how people would twist the scripture to "justify" owning slaves.  Here a few of the verses and arguments found in these two chapters:
"But you know how the angel commanded Hagar to return to her mistress, and submit herself under her hand; and the apostle sent back Onesimus to his master."  "Let everyone abide in the condition in which he is called."  "It's undoubtedly the intention of Providence that the African race should be servants, - kept kept in a low condition....'Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be."    Yes they do quote scriptures and stories in the Bible, but it is all taken out of context and twisted around.
They didn't look at the part that says:  "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them."    "My friend, .... how can you, how dare you, carry on a trade like this?  Look at those poor creatures!  Here I am, rejoicing in my heart that I am going home to my wife and child; and the same bell which is a signal to carry me onward towards them will part this poor man and his wife forever.  Depend upon it, God will bring you into judgement for this."
God does not allow for people to take His holy Word and twist it around they wilol stand in judgement for it.
Happy reading!
Missy

Uncle Tom's Cabin Chapters 9-10

Chapter nine starts off with a senator and his wife in Ohio discussing the new fugitive slave law that he just helped to vote in.  Mrs. Bird (the senator's wife) does not like the law at all and is asking her husband whether or not he could actually turn them in.  She says that she doesn't know much about politics, "but I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry,clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate; and that Bible I mean to follow."  How right she is!  Yes we are "to obey the laws of the land" according to the Bible, but only as long as they do not go against the Bible.  She also says:  "Obeying God never brings on public evils.  I know it can't.  It's always safest, all around, to do as He bids us." 
In the middle of this discussion who shows up but Eliza!  Of course they help her, who could turn away a mother trying to protect her child?
Chapter is about when Harley (the slave driver) comes back for Uncle Tom.  It is a very sad scene in the cabin as they eat their last breakfast together.  His wife and children are crying.  Even though Haley has been assured that Tom would not run away he puts leg shackles and handcuffs on him.  Master George, the 13 yr old son, is very upset about Tom leaving also.  George tries to convinve Tom to run away, but he won't do it, because it wouldn't be right.
Happy Reading!

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" Chapters 4-8

I had to make myself stop reading so that I would not get too far in my book!  Eliza escaped with her boy before, Harley, the slave trader could take her boy.  Uncle Tom would not go, because he knew that more slaves would have to go in his stead and that Mr. Shelby would be in trouble if he also ran off. 
Sam, another slave, has been "helping" Harley find Eliza.  Since it was obvious that Mrs. Shelby wanted Eliza to succeed, he has been causing all kind of delays.
Here is a discussion between the slaves about Mr. Harley and the Kingdom:  " 'Serves him right' said Aunt Chloe, indignantly.  'He'll get wus nor uneasy, one of these days, if he don't mend his ways.  His master'll be sending for him, and then see how he'll look! (Which "master" do you think Harley serves?)
'He'll go to torment and no mistake.' said little Jake.
.....'it's like what Mas'r George reads in Ravelations,-souls a callin' under the altar! and a callin' on the Lord for vengeance on sich!......'
'Pray for them that 'spitefully use you, the good book says,' says Tom.
'Pray for 'em!' said Aunt Chloe; 'Lor, it's too tough!  I can't pray for 'em'
'........I'm sure I'd rather be sold, ten thousand times over, than to have all that ar poor crittur's got to answer for."
How often do we forget that we will have to answer for our sins?  The Lord will judge us at the Judgement Seat.  He will judge the unsaved and the saved both.  Are you following the Lord according to His Book?  There is a Heaven and a Hell, where will you be?
Happy reading,
Missy

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" chapters 1-4

I have read the first four chapters of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"  What an easy read!  I am whipping right through it and I have to make myself put it down!  I am a little confused though.  Everything I have read about the book says that it starts off with the death of Uncle Tom.  He hasn't died yet!
It starts off in the first chapter with Mr. Shelby and a slave trader.  Mr. Shelby is a good, kind, Christian man.  He owns Uncle Tom, who is also a Christian.  He owes the slave trader money and is being forced to sell Uncle Tom even though he is his most dependable and trustworthy servant.  The slavetrader also wants to buy another slave's(Eliza)little four year old boy because he is "delightful" and is trying to force this "sale" with Mr. Shelby.  Eliza heard a snatch of the conversation is very worried.  She has never been treated like a slave but like a servant. 
Eliza is married to George who is owned by another plantation owner.  George is rented out to a factory, but when his owner finds out that George is smarter than he is and invents a machine, he forces George to quit and do the most menial tasks he can.  His owner won't let him stay married to Eliza anymore and is going to force him to marry one of his slaves to "sire" more children for him.
There is a side note in my book that there was a machine she describes invented by a young colored man in Kentucky.  Is that note in the newer versions?
George decides to run away to Canada rather than break his marriage vows.
Master George, Mr. Shelby's 13 year old son is teaching Uncle Tom how to read. 
In only four chapters Mrs. Stowe has done a great job of setting up the plot for the book.  I can't wait to read more to find out what happens!
Happy Reading!
Missy

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Introduction)

I have started reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin" - finally!  The introduction was kind of boring and did not set my mood very well for the actual story.  Let me start off by saying that my book was published in 1885.  The original copyright date is 1851.    There was originally two titles for the book.  It is titled "Uncle Tom's Cabin or Life Among the Lowly."  I hear people say all the time that Mrs. Stowe was a northerner and did not know the truth.  That is not totally true.  She based several incidents on actual events from slaves and other people.  She knew a slave who's owner would let him travel with money and the slave would always return.  This slave was a christian.  She also let several slave children join her children's homeschool as she taught her children and her family's children.  She had lived for several years in "Ohio on the confines of a slave state, and had thus been made familiar with facts and occurrences in relation to the instution of American slavery.  Some of the most harrowing incidents related in the story had from time to time come to her knowledge in conversation with former slaves now free in Ohio."
She started writing the book as magazine articles in an anti-slavery paper.  "After many years' residence in Ohio, Mrs. Stowe returned to make her abode in New England."  "In New England, as at the west, professed abolitionists were a small, despised, unfashionable band, whose constant remonstrances from year to year had been disregarded as the voices of impracticable fanatics."  Mrs. Stowe was distressed when she heard people say that slavery was a "constitutional right, and that all opposition to it endangered the national Union."  She even saw christians close their hearts and eyes to slavery and even helped return slaves to their owners.  She decided people needed to know the truth about slavery; "and hence arose a purpose to write some sketches which would show to the world slavery as she had herself seen it."
"In shaping her material the author had but one purpose, to show the institution of slavery truly, just as it existed."  She wanted to show that slavery was because of a bad system, not bad people. 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was published March 20, 1852.  She says often in her introduction that she did not write the story, but it wrote itself.  She could feel the Lord guiding her as she wrote.  She prayed and cried through the entire book while she was writing.  She could not stop writing until everything was written down.  This is definitely a Christian novel.
The introduction was 49 pages long so I could not include it all.  I thought it would be interesting to know the background of the story before we started.
Happy reading!
Missy

"Lasso Her Heart" by Anna Schmidt

"Lasso Her Heart" is a short novella by Anna Schmidt.  It is an older book.  You have the modern day cowboy and the city girl who have both suffered losses.  They both have guilt over the loved ones' deaths.  She does not want ot get close to anyone, whereas he has learned to "go with the flow".  She keeps pushing him away but he sees the vuneribility in her eyes and keeps trying to help.  She has to overcome her fears before he can get close.  It has a good storyline and flows smoothly.  It is a very good book and I would recommend reading it.
Happy reading!
Missy