{"product_id":"uncle-tom-mania-slavery-minstrelsy-and-transatlantic-culture-in-the-1850s-9780820327372","title":"Uncle Tom Mania: Slavery, Minstrelsy, and Transatlantic Culture in the 1850s","description":"\u003cp\u003eTitled after \"Tom-Mania,\" the name a British newspaper gave to the international sensation attending the 1852 novel \u003cem\u003eUncle Tom's Cabin\u003c\/em\u003e, this study looks anew at the novel and the songs, plays, sketches, translations, and imitations it inspired. In particular, Sarah Meer shows how the theatrical mode of blackface minstrelsy, the slavery question, and America's emerging cultural identity affected how \u003cem\u003eUncle Tom's Cabin\u003c\/em\u003e was read, discussed, dramatized, merchandised, and politicized here and abroad.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUntil \u003cem\u003eUncle Tom's Cabin\u003c\/em\u003e, Meer says, little truly common ground existed on which the United States and Britain could debate slavery. In addition to cutting across class, gender, and national lines, the novel tapped into a huge, preexisting transatlantic appetite for blackface performance. Even as it condemned slavery, however, \u003cem\u003eUncle Tom's Cabin\u003c\/em\u003e was ambiguous about racial equality, and it portrayed blacks in demeaning ways. This gave copycat novels and minstrel stagings leeway to stray from Harriet Beecher Stowe's intentions. Minstrel-show versions in particular had a huge influence on later incarnations of the Uncle Tom story, converting the character into \"a comic, or worse, a proslavery stooge\"--a scorned figure in our popular memory.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo look at how and why \u003cem\u003eUncle Tom's Cabin\u003c\/em\u003e \"both advocated emancipation and licensed a plethora of racist imitators,\" Meer places it in the context of contemporary minstrel sketches, melodramas, songs, jokes, newspaper commentaries, slave narratives, travel writing, proslavery novels, and even Uncle Tom merchandise like china figurines and wallpaper. She goes on to discuss Harriet Beecher Stowe's travelogue \u003cem\u003eSunny Memories of Foreign Lands\u003c\/em\u003e and her second novel, \u003cem\u003eDred\u003c\/em\u003e. The publication of each unleashed the political energies of \u003cem\u003eUncle Tom's Cabin\u003c\/em\u003e and its revisions yet again.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-3510275\"\u003eSarah Meer\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Georgia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/01\/2005\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 340\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.11lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.24h x 6.10w x 0.94d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780820327372\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0820327379\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-LIT\"\u003eLiterary Criticism\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-LIT004020\"\u003eAmerican | General\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-HIS\"\u003eHistory\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-HIS036040\"\u003eUnited States | 19th Century\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSarah Meer is a university lecturer in English at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Selwyn College.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Georgia Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44566434873581,"sku":"9780820327372","price":55.43,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_d519397f-0514-4f4d-99e1-a0649af5b867.jpg?v=1701879011","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/uncle-tom-mania-slavery-minstrelsy-and-transatlantic-culture-in-the-1850s-9780820327372","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}