Activity

Harriet Beecher Stowe Sends Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Victoria and Albert, 1852

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This Harriet Beecher Stowe Sends Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Victoria and Albert, 1852 activity also includes:

Harriet Beecher Stowe's plea for abolition is not only laid plain in her acclaimed novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, but in her written correspondence as well. High schoolers read a letter written by Stowe to Prince Albert and Queen Victoria to accompany a copy of her newly published novel, imploring British support for an end to America's continued practice of slavery.

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CCSS: Adaptable
Instructional Ideas
  • Use as a companion activity to a class reading on Uncle Tom's Cabin
  • Assign the discussion questions as research essay prompts
  • Have class members paraphrase the elevated language in the letter to a more modern way of speaking
  • Incorporate into a lesson on the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
Classroom Considerations
  • Struggling readers may need some support when reading the primary source, particular in deciphering 19th-century spelling and language conventions
Pros
  • Incorporates primary source analysis and historical context into one lesson
  • Provides a written transcript of the original document
  • Introduction serves as an excellent summary of the letter's main points
Cons
  • None