One of the most surprising arguments Stowe presents in her novel is that Northerners, even though they do not own slaves or run plantations, may be just as, or even more, racist than their southern counterparts. This most clearly plays out in the dichotomy between St. Clare and Miss Ophelia. While St. Clare is the son and brother of plantation owners and owns his own slaves as well, he is also ideologically opposed to the system itself, and he has many moments throughout the novel where he divulges about his feelings on the matter. However, being a Southern aristocrat, he doesn’t see anything he as an individual can do to uproot the system, and so he continues owning slaves as he always has. At the beginning of her part of the novel, Miss Ophelia solely views slavery as wrong, and she criticizes St. Clare frequently for continuing to keep slaves. Regardless, she is clearly a racist and describes frequently her disgust towards the black slaves in the house, including, eventually, Toppy. It takes her a long time, and the religious persuasion from Eva and her death for Miss Ophelia to begin to actually care for Toppy and view her as a human being. This goes to show that sometimes Southerners are actually more invested in the abolitionist cause than Northerners are (even when they actively own slaves and refuse to do anything about the system themselves).
This is a very complex point that Stowe makes, and it is one that is, in my opinion, has gotten a bit lost in history. As we discussed in class last week, much of what we learn in school about slavery and the civil war is that the North was the “good” side and the South was the “bad” side. However, it was much more complicated than that in actuality, and I find it impressive that Stowe was able to effectively relay this point and portray antithetical characters such as St. Clare and Miss Ophelia.
Also of note, though slightly off topic to my main point, is that Stowe, through St. Clare, also compares the institution of slavery to English capitalism. “He is as much at the will of his employer as if he were sold to him. The slave-owner can whip his refractory slave to death,—the capitalist can starve him to death. As to family security, it is hard to say which is the worst,—to have one’s children sold, or see them starve to death at home.” This further extends her argument that there is no one set of “bad guys” in the history of slavery and oppression. Similar systems of discrimination and abuse are happening throughout the country and around that world, just under different names and disguises.
I find it interesting that you mention that you felt as if the complexities of the northern and southern attitudes were lost in history because I have a similar view. History is written by the majority, and white people, wishing to preserve their reputations for their posterity were the majority. I remember being shocked when my high school history teacher tried to compare the horrors of slavery to sand fleas when discussing the Columbian Exchange. The civil war was a topic that was skimmed over with embarrassment by my teacher, an obviously racist, white lady, working in Memphis, Tennessee. I also heard stories of her telling her next class year of AP US History that the KKK was a group of boys. Clearly, my education was nowhere near satisfactory to offering a complex picture of social problems, an issue that I found Stowe to expertly achieve.
There was a peculiar moral sympathy offered to slave owners that ones she deemed more cruel were rightfully denied. However, I believe this humanization of slave owners allowed the racism of the north to emerge more than if the story relied on the north/south divide. For example, the daughter of the man who buys Tom was almost meant to be a Saint. She prayed with Tom and spoke of how she wished for his freedom, eventually making her father promise to free him. She was as much a part of the system as the other slave owners, and yet Stowe offers her religious sympathy and honors her when her character dies. In addition, she advocated for the freedom of Tom, despite being raised as a slaveowner. This strongly contrast the blatant racism of Miss Opelia that you mentioned, a juxtaposition that shows the complexity of historical issues. Stowe’s novel in doing this offered an argument that didn’t alleviate the north of all responsabilty, but that rather held each racist individual accountable by exposing their lack of morality to the reader.