Uncle Tom’s Cabin – A Novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 – 1896) So this is the lady who started the Civil War. -- Abraham Lincoln

It was the most important American book written in the 19th century It was the most important American book written in the 19th century. It may be the most influential book ever written in America. Its chapters were first printed in a newspaper.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin changed people’s ideas about slavery Uncle Tom’s Cabin changed people’s ideas about slavery. It made people in the North angry. It made them willing to fight a war to end slavery.

When President Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe during the Civil War he said to her, “So this is the little lady who wrote the book that made this great war.” http://www.flickr.com/photos/mogaphoto/3403731925/

Reconstruction Amendments – 13th, 14th and 15th

The Rise of Ku Klux Klan in the South

Black Disfranchisement

Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from a Birmingham jail MLK and his followers were jailed in Birmingham, Alabama for breaking the law against public demonstrations. While he was in jail, a group of clergymen published a letter in the newspaper criticizing his presence and his strategies.

Responding to his critics, MLK wrote the letter and tried to persuade local clergymen of the rightness of his action He also wanted to unite the African-American community And to reach out to the white political moderate

Unjust and Just Laws An unjust law is one “out of harmony with the moral law.” “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.” Application to segregation A law is unjust if a minority group forced to obey but didn’t help enact, or if the majority doesn’t have to follow it, or if it is unfairly applied in practice.

Nonviolent Resistance “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” King stresses the need for “creative extremism” that avoids both the “do-nothingism” of the complacent or apathetic and the “despair” of mindless violence.

The Nature of Time A “tragic misconception of time” that change will come about inevitably; King insists that “time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively.. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.” “Justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

King spoke to 250,000 civil rights supporters during the “March on Washington” August 28, 1963.

On December 10, 1965, Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize.

On April 4, 1968, while standing on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, King was assassinated by James Earl Ray.