UNCLE TOM’S CABIN
Monolgue

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (Narrative 5)
(Surrounded by her seven children.)  Something must be done!  I am at present occupied upon a story embracing a series of sketches which give the lights and shadows of the patriarchal institution.  I shall show the best side of the thing, and something faintly approaching the worst.  Up to this year I have alway felt I had no particular call to meddle with this subject, and I dread to expose even my own mind to the full force of it’s power.  But I feel noe that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak and I hope every woman who can write will not be silent.  My vocation is simply that of a painter. There is no arguing with pictures, and everybody is impressed by them, whether they mean to be or not.