Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin quickly became an international bestseller, igniting sympathy for those victimized by the institution of slavery. The story represented on one side of jug depicts a devastated family forcibly separated at an auction. The reverse depicts the young enslaved girl Eliza escaping across the icy Ohio River to freedom.  The handle is an abstracted grotesque African head. As an object at a tavern or table, this jug would have sparked potentially controversial discussions of the politically charged and distressing story of an American tragedy.

Eliza’s Escape

Illustrated editions of Stowe’s controversial novel were popular, although the author disliked them for their tendency to fetishize the violence of slavery. These illustrated editions feature images nearly identical to those on the jug. These scenes in the novel impacted their viewers and might spark familiarity to to the book and stir conversation.

“Eliza crosses the Ohio on the floating ice. The huge green fragment of ice on which she alighted pitched and creaked as her weight came on it…”

1852 and c. 1950 Print Editions

Photos courtesy of the Special Collections Library at the University of Wisconsin, Madison from the Cairns Collection of American Women Writers

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