Aunt Phillis's Cabin

"A picture of Southern life taken at different points of view from the one occupied by the author of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' The writer being a native of the South, is familiar with the many varied aspects assumed by domestic servitude in the sunny region, and therefore feels competent to give pictures of 'Southern Life as it Is.' Pledged to no clique or party, and free from the pressure of any and all extraneous influences, she has written her book with a view to its truthfulness; and...
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"A picture of Southern life taken at different points of view from the one occupied by the author of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' The writer being a native of the South, is familiar with the many varied aspects assumed by domestic servitude in the sunny region, and therefore feels competent to give pictures of 'Southern Life as it Is.' Pledged to no clique or party, and free from the pressure of any and all extraneous influences, she has written her book with a view to its truthfulness; and the public at the North, as well as at the South, will find in 'Aunt Phillis's Cabin' not the distorted picture of an interested painter....It is the truth that all profess to seek, and in a matter of such vital interest to the whole nation as Domestic Slavery. Truth - not highly wrought imaginary representations - is above all things demanded. Such truth in the enticing garb of a skillful fiction will 'Aunt Phillis's Cabin' present. The author does not come before the public as the apologist of Slavery, but with the earnest desire to represent it as it is, and in doing so, she will show its ameliorating features in strong contrast with the painful scenes so elaborately set forth in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin." -The Literary World, Volume 11, July, 1852

"Mrs. Eastman is a very sprightly writer. Her descriptions are lively and picturesque, and her management of dialogue artistic. The scope of her work will be understood when it is stated that it is a professed replication to the popular book, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.'" -The Eclectic Magazine, Volume 27, September, 1852

One of the best-sellers of the "anti-Tom" novels of its era, Mary Henderson Eastman's Aunt Phillis's Cabin was quite typical of the literary genre that advanced the slave apologists' argument that the "peculiar institution" was essentially more paternal and benign than the inevitable sufferings of free blacks and exploited working classes of the urban north. Published to counteract the emotional and viscerally-charged abolitionist sentiments fueled by Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Eastman's novel tallied sales figures of 20,000 to 30,000 copies as compared to 300,000 for Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Published in 1852, Aunt Phillis's Cabin contains contrasts and comparisons to the anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, which was published earlier that year. It serves as an antithesis; Eastman's novel deliberately referred to the situation in Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, where plantation owners abuse their repressed, disloyal slaves. Eastman portrays white plantation owners who behave benignly toward their slaves. Eastman also uses quotes from various sources - including Uncle Tom's Cabin itself - to explain that slavery is a natural institution, and essential to life.