Directions: Use the themes, questions and video clips below to teach and learn with portions of C-SPAN's American Writers program featuring Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin. Link to the complete video clip list to identify clip descriptions and create your own lessons. Each theme contains questions and video clips appropriate for varying grade levels. Lesson Credit:
Curriculum Advisory Team member, Betsy Fitzgerald.

1. Find Cincinnati on a map. Identify at least three pieces of information from the map that help to understand the history of Cincinnati. Why was Cincinnati an important city in the history of slavery and abolition? Expand on the terms "hot spot" and "contested area."
2. Identify some of the ways that struggles related to race are still ongoing. To what degree are the causes and effects of slavery (or oppression of other kinds, or of other races) still evident today?
3. How was the oppression of slaves in the U.S. similar to other oppressions in history? other oppressions ongoing throughout the world? How is it different?
4. What does Carl Westmoreland mean by referring to actions as "non-productive?" What remedy does he propose for constructive change?
5. Can the popularity of Stowe's story be explained by virtue of its timelessness? Explain.

1. How did the fact that Harriet Beecher Stowe was a woman impact her as a writer? her ability to write? the topics she chose? her perspective?
2. List some of the ways her family supported her. What made it possible for her to write?
3. What other types of writing did she undertake? Can you ascribe her accomplishments as a writer to her experience or tendencies as a woman?
4. How does she evolve as a writer? What changes in her topics, formats and style take place?
5. Hypothesize: if Harriet Beecher Stowe was a man, would he have written Uncle Tom’s Cabin? Explain your answer(s).

1. From what religious perspective does Stowe write? How is this perspective used in the text? What impact did it have on readers?
2. Many of Stowe’s male relatives were preachers. Identify some of them and their goals and motivations as religious preachers.
3. What does it mean to be “evangelical?” Was the Stowe family evangelical? Compare Stowe’s writing pen to a preacher’s pulpit.
4. Upon what foundations did Stowe argue against slavery? How do religious principles compare to political, social and economic principles that appeared on either side of the debate surrounding abolition.
5. Today, is it effective to argue for political and social change upon religious principles? Explain.