This course illuminates one area of American political thought. The topic will be Harriet Stowe's moral account of freedom and the reasoning associated with it. The focus will be on Uncle Tom's Cabin, albeit referencing several of Stowe's writings. We will establish a context for the discussion by reviewing Frederick Douglass's powerful question, "What country have I?", and the political, religious, and cultural contexts in which Uncle Tom's Cabin was written. The goal is to understand just how Stowe came to formulate her ideas and why she had the impact on American society that she did. Also to be considered is whether the philosophical ideas that informed her work bear any direct responsibility for the political events that unfolded as a result of her work.
Instructor: William B. Allen is Dean and Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University. He is the author of Rethinking Uncle Tom: the Political Thought of Harriet Beecher Stowe and George Washington: America's First Progressive.