When Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the effect was electric. Abolitionists hailed it for its depictions of the cruelty of slavery. Southerners immediately denounced it as lies. By the Civil War—a war that Abraham Lincoln purportedly attributed to Stowe’s book—over one million copies had sold. Even after the war and slavery’s end, Uncle Tom’s Cabin remained popular in theater productions. Then, as motion pictures developed, it became the most adapted story of the silent film era.
For this year’s pilgrimage, the Hubbard House Underground Railroad Museum and the Lakeside Society for the Performing Arts will present the 1914 silent film adaptation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This film version is significant in that it was the first motion picture to feature an African American actor in a leading role, rather than a white actor in blackface.
True to the genre, the film will be accompanied by organist Jay Spencer on the Bethany Lutheran Pels pipe organ. Jay is house organist at the Canton Palace Theatre and a friend and frequent guest artist for LSPA concerts and silent films at the Lakeside High School “Mighty Kimball”.
Join the museum and the society for the viewing. Discussion of the film to follow. The program is free to attend; donations are appreciated.