"Uncle Tom's Cabin" by George Aiken

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I've.
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Had a vision in a church in Brunswick.
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Left the church and began to write her novel was published
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sparking a national Holocaust. The printer's ink was mixed
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with blood. Hundred years later and for a
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hundred the most fabulous book in America came the most fabulous America.
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Program 8 of America on stage. The character of a
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nation as seen through its theater.
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America on stage is produced by the Wisconsin state broadcasting service under a grant from the
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Educational Television and Radio Center in cooperation with the National Association of
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educational broadcasters. Consultant for the series is Jonathan W. Kervyn
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professor of speech at the University of Wisconsin and a specialist in the American
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theater.
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Here to introduce the program Professor Kirkman Harriet Beecher Stowe never
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intended to write a propaganda novel. But only as she said to set down in
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words a series of pictures. These pictures would be explicit
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concrete illustrations of slaveries effects upon slaves and slave owners.
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She felt that a vivid and truthful representation of human beings could show exactly what
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slavery was. And with more telling effect than abstract theory or general
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preaching. My vocation she said is simply that of a
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painter. There was no arguing with pictures and everybody is impressed by them whether
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they mean to be or not. Uncle Tom's Cabin attracted a
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phenomenal number of readers here and abroad. The book broke all existing sales
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records. This is still receive complex letters of gratitude from those who declared
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that until reading it they had never known what slavery really was or pictures it would
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seem did convey at least some of the real truth. These
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pictures came almost immediately to life in the theater. This of course is
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understandable if we allow the stage a special ability to capture reality in terms of actual
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flesh and blood people. The novels original characters moving against
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whatever semblance of locales the scene painters could provide. Gained a new dimension
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on the stage. Whatever liberties the adapter playwrights took with the original
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story and they took some fantastic ones. Not
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one of the many dramatic versions of Uncle Tom's Cabin was able to dispel the force
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of this is still was righteous work all contain speaking
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likenesses of her originals.
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Every a feature story Dar Frale wife of a preacher daughter
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of a preacher published Uncle Tom's Cabin on March 20th 1850 to
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a volume of righteous wrathful fire fanned the north and seared the south
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by the summer possession of the book was a ticket to suicide in South Carolina. By the
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summer New York money and jewelry were flung in church collection plates to buy freedom for
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slaves. By the summer Mrs. Dole was an awesome saint. A
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vicious devil. A symbol of motherhood. A nation's destroyer.
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By the summer a playwright anxious to help the fight against slavery
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asked for permission to dramatize the novel. Harriet Beecher Stowe wife of a
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preacher daughter of a preacher answered him that summer of 1852.
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It would not be advisable to make that use of the work which you propose. If the barrier which
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now keeps young people of Christian families from theatrical entertainments is once broken
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down by the introduction of respectable in model plays they will be open to all the
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temptations of those who are not such. And there will be as the world now is five
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bad plays to one good. However good may be the idea of reforming
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dramatic entertainments I fear it is wholly impracticable. And as a friend to
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you should hope that you would not run the risk of so dangerous an experiment.
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Can the world is not good enough yet for it to succeed by
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the summer of 1852 eager theater managers saw gold in the passions and in
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the fire the warmth of a full house. Uncle Tom would wear grease
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paint whether the world was good enough or not. In 1852 a
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copyright did not cover the dramatic rights of production in September. Uncle
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Tom's Cabin made its bow in the Troy Museum in New York State. There are posters
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screamed they have it.
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Turner Knight first months of Uncle Tom's Cabin. An evening's
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entertainment for ya know that measured 25 cents children
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half rise.
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Six hour.
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Horrible conditions of the slaves in a cabin
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go across the ice
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comes back to.
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Russia lost a piece human finds
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dog screen between me and me a shot of the eyes were bam.
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Great chance of escape to sink beneath the
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home for me and so when the bomb sneaks upon the
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trunk of a limb there she is now she's making for
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the room.
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Chapter.
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One of the many that's known. Trying to
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reach for the
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average.
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Was
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God's
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curse after all.
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The next year 1853 Harriet Beecher Stowe life of a preacher
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daughter of a preacher raised $20000 in England for the great cause against
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slavery. Five hundred thousand British women signed an indictment against the evil
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conditions in the southern states. Three hundred thousand copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin had been
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sold in the north. A clergyman shouted. Let all men read it.
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And in Virginia the children saying.
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And in 1853 the epic of Uncle Tom's Cabin is brought to the Chatham Street Theatre in New
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York City to play over three hundred nights. Often the people who never were inside
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their doors before.
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John Alright I'm but drive them straight for your arm gold poms cabin
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where you will fairly on fire even know after I know a story can get
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months tops. The little Slayer.
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She's dreadfully dirty and shiftless. I'll tell you a topsy
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don't know Mrs. house shifters don't you know how old you are.
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Did anybody ever tell you.
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Who was your mama. Topsy never never
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had a mother. Now what do you mean. Now where were you born. Never was
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wrong. You mustn't answer me in that way I'm not playing with you.
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Tell me where you was born and who your father and mother were never was
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nothing.
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I was raised by aspect for no sushi is taking
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speculators by the cheap when they're little and getting raised for the market.
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Well how long have you lived with your master and mistress. I don't know Mrs.
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Hull ship.
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Is it a year moron I guess.
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I see you don't even know what
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have you ever heard anything about heaven Topsy.
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Don't you know who made you you know. I think
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that growed.
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The plains of Kansas ran red where the harvest of death after 1850 for
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Free Staters and slave holders wheeled wildly into the territory the Conestoga
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wagons rumbled and screeched through the ruts where farmers traders fighters each
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with a vote to decide if Kansas goes free or slave. In a wagon sat
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John Brown and his straight top sons. Brown preached with a rifle to the
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Missourians and the Missourians covered the Virgin Kansas earth over his
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sons and the voters saw a new moon at midnight in the fires of their houses and
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Harriet Beecher Stowe told a friend a solemn secret.
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I did not write the book. You did not write about Tom's
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Cabin. No. I only put down what I saw. But
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you've never been in the south have you. I have not. But it all came before me in
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visions one after another.
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God wrote it. I put it down for him.
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It's cabin opening on the Bowery Theatre January of
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0 7 not seen although Tom's Cabin Come want to see
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the tops.
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Or capture the top.
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That's so awful. We keep the Can't nobody do me
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I used to keep Mrs. sway in the time. Space as
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creative in the paps we
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pass banks on how they despise me because I don't know
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nothing. I don't think we can
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but you sure do. But when
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we didn't have to did he was there on that stands do.
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You know Robert you're trying.
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Again but you're not your father.
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You know me but haven't you
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known.
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Never not know me ask
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me.
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You.
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Think you're wrong
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do you miss it.
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I want to hear.
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Well. But.
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The finger of fire moved past Kansas and flicked blood into Virginia. John Browne
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led a group of zealous abolitionists into the government arsenal at Harpers Ferry and waited for the three
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million slaves to rip off their chains and rebel. None did. The man inside the
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Arsenal were slaughtered by federal troops and John Brown was tried sentenced and
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executed. The blood was thicker and the fire was higher. And all across the nation the
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crowds warmed the pocketbooks of the theater managers and crowded to see Uncle Tom's Cabin.
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In Philadelphia Detroit Chicago. The women cried in the darkness and
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watched the little evil sit in the ample lap of Uncle Tom await their entrance
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into heaven.
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John Greenleaf Whittier the popular poet was moved to rhapsodize dry the tears
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for holy evil.
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With the blasted angels leave of the form so sweet and
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give to earth the tender care for the golden
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locks still Viva let the sunny Southland give her a flower
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of repose orange blossom and budding roses.
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Say Uncle Tom's Cabin the point for America. Calm yourself. Bring the
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family. Cite Samuel very little he was almost
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frankly drawn out on the Americans.
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Read that passage again.
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Well here he is want me see
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this is where the Fowler crew would not receive it.
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I
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bribed me old.
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Freddy were suppose.
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In the clouds you see.
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I think I see it. Yep it's light
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and you can see they are.
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So he banned spirits
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bright red
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beans Bartley's white and was that.
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What you had to be sure
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you are one of them yourself you are the brightest spirit I ever saw.
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Those spirits bright.
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Where Miss evil spirits.
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Is just know you are trying to keep nice even here. I have always
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said so. She got the Lord's mark on your forehead. She
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won never like a child likes to live. It was always something
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deep in a I.
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Don't you think they are well enough for.
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You.
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The crowd sat through the hours of play and sentimentality and wept and
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cursed by the literary sophisticates who criticised the wordage of her book
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of fire Harriet Beecher Stowe had a ready answer.
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I had no thought of style or literary excellence. Imagine a mother who
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rushes into the street and cries for help to save her children from a burning house.
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Does she think of the rhetorician or the elocutionist
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in 1861 southern forces fired on Fort Sumter and the House of
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the nation was in total blaze and Uncle Tom marched from one theater to
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the next. A soldier in the forces of the Republic with song and dance. Six
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thirty. A dozen different authors a dozen different versions a
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dozen different languages.
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And not a penny profit for Harriet Beecher Stowe wife of a preacher
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daughter of a preacher.
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The cost.
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Come to every drop of blood there is and you had taken one by one to give up mass
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if you were sick or in trouble or die and I could save your hide
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give you my heart's blood and if taken every drop of blood in this poor old
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body would save your precious soul I'd give him free.
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Do the worst you came my troubles will be over soon. But if you don't
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repent yours won't never a
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day no more I can do
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I forgive you with all of it was so
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strange.
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Well what do you want. I understand that you bought a new name
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Tom did by such a fellow but a devil of a bargain to head up a tool.
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I believe he's trying to make it out where he's let me see
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what that devil rock this bit of paper. I arrest you for the murder of Mr.
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Sinclair. What do you say to that person.
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I read it. Like a sob.
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Oh dear Uncle Tom too weak to speak once the greedy.
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Master George Little Master George. Don't you know me George.
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It's all I want it has been forgotten.
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Good.
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Now I shall die I can take. You mustn't think of it.
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I've come to buy you and take your master Giorgio to
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me.
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He's going to take me home. It will kill me and it'll break my
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heart to think what you've suffered. Poor fellow. Don't call
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me poor fellow.
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I have you know. But then they told has gone.
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I'm right in the door to glory.
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George Haven is I've got the victory. The Lord has given
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it to me.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe the tiny frail wife of a
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preacher daughter of a preacher who wrote a book of fire and seared a nation
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in 1862 she went to see President Lincoln. The gaunt giant from Illinois looked at the
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severely dressed middle aged woman and exclaimed so the little lady who
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made this big war after the war the crude pious play was
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performed as a circus and spectacle. But by then ten thousand Uncle
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Tom's Cabin black ashes in the southern fields and slaves were
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struggling up while the United States made of the tiny book of fire
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a legend of their literature.
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Here again is Professor Jonathan curve of.
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The plane. Uncle Tom's Cabin met with less than critical acclaim when it first produced in the
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1850s. That is from the professional dramatic critics.
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They scoff not only at the dramas lack of unity and focus but also it's a flagrant
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melodrama and sentimentality of the piece.
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They wrote sarcastically of what they call its exaggerated enormities its
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bad taste its crudities and its absurdities.
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So much for the critics. The paying public reacted differently. They
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stormed the theatres where Uncle Tom was playing. They returned again and again to
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shed tears over Little Eva. And here sits Simon Legree.
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Audiences Furthermore seem to sense behind the obvious hokum of the hack playwrights.
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A basic truths about the inhumanity of the SOLs peculiar
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institution I throwing this is still those characters and scenes into a
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strong even lurid relief. The stage version acted as a
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powerful propaganda force during the years before the outbreak of the great American conflict.
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But the extraordinary life of the play after that conflict is even more remarkable.
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The records show it to have been given a total of some 300000 performances.
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It maintained at least a sporadic life on the stage as late as the
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1940s. Its latest reincarnation appears in the
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contemporary musical play the King and I know where it is given a delightfully
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imaginative Siamese treatment. In
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short Uncle Tom's Cabin became a stage Marvel. Tom
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shows as they were called roam the country for years. They played everywhere in small
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town opera houses and under canvas. Some companies were elaborate.
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Often boasting to Uncle Toms and to Simon agrees which sounds like an
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embarrassment of riches. Other Tom troops just managed to get
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by and then only with an ingenious doubling of roles.
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Prized above all with the inevitable dogs. Pretending
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ferocity the chaste allies over the Ohio river ice floes. They were
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good actors. Sometimes they stole the show from the human performers.
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The dogs remark one critic at a North Dakota town where poorly
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supported. On our next program nights in the series America
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on stage we take note of another native theatrical institution some would
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say it is the most American of all the minstrel show all.
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The.
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Program eight of America on stage produced and recorded by the
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Wisconsin state broadcasting service under a grant from the Educational Television Radio
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Center. The programs are distributed by the National Association of educational
[27:47 - 27:52]
broadcasters consulting for the series. Jonathan W. Kervyn professor of
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speech at the University of Wisconsin heard in the cast were cliff Roberts Tom
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Grunewald Marge Schott for Tom to teen Vera Ray Stanley
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packing Marcia Miller and Ken ost music composed and conducted by Don
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vaguely banjo by Josh Salter script by Julius lamb
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doll production by Carl Schmidt.
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Yeah.
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This is the end he be radio network.