Uncle Tom's Cabin at the World's Columbian Exposition

Abstract

The framing of Uncle Tom's Cabin in the Columbian Exposition raises questions about the appeal of Stowe's novel for post-Civil War readers. I tackle those questions by considering the governing conception behind the Stowe exhibit and then analyzing dramatic differences in two American editions included in the Woman's Library. In the Stowe display, as in other contexts throughout the 1890s, Uncle Tom's Cabin was employed to support a self-congratulatory narrative of moral and social progress in U.S. culture while subtly outlining a program of continued subordination as the proper place for African Americans.