SOURCE: Warren, Kenneth W. “The Persistence of Uncle Tom and the Problem of Critical Distinction.” In Black and White Strangers: Race and American Literary Realism, pp. 71-108. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993.

In the following essay, Warren examines the enduring influence of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin on realist representations of racial inequality.

I

Central to understanding the troubles besetting the project of realistic critical definition is an awareness of the persistent influence of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin during these decades. From its publication in 1852 through the end of the century, the novel remained a bestseller, inspiring admiration from common and elite readers alike. As William Veeder has put it, “what major author was not moved to tribute and tears by Uncle Tom's Cabin?”¹ The imaginative scope of Stowe's masterwork led John William De Forest to describe the novel as “the nearest approach to...