MAN AGAINST MYTH
GOODBYE TO UNCLE TOM, by J. C. Furnas; Secker and Warburg, N.Z. price 30/-. ‘THis book is both the case history of a myth and a devastating example of literary demolition. The myth
is that of African "racial" inferiority and Mr Furnas’s target is the hapless, humble ghost of dear old Uncle Tom, Uncle Tom’s | Cabin was probably the most influential second rate book ever written. By 1852, the year it was published, slavery was already an emotional obsession in America, regardless of economic factors. Northern preachers, abolitionists and newspaper editors elevated the book to the status of Holy Writ; Uncle Tom Shows broke out like a tash in every
fairground, church hall and _ repertory barn in the country. And how they persisted! For well over 50 years after slavery was abolished, audiences from San Francisco to Birmingham and Budapest to Hokitika absorbed this curious blend of Victorian genetics, Christian charity, caste consciousness and incoherent mumbo jumbo. Today the show is ended, but the malady lingers on; the myth of oncletomerie has survived to infect one of the most urgent social problems of our time. In Goodbye to Uncle Tom, Mr Furnas undertakes to show us what slavery really was, and what Negroes really are. This is a large order by any standards, but he cuts through the tangle of racial prejudice and romantic illusion with razor-sharp wit and the deftness of a surgeon. The book moves from Colonial times down into the Deep South, north along the famous Underground Railroad and out on tour with the travelling Tommers. It concludes with a brief survey of the Negro problem in the light of modern anthropological and educational research, This. is no cut-and-copy job, but a sparkli original work, packed with anecdotes and buttressed by an impressive documentary background. Where the specific source is not given, controversial statements are attributed either to Negro or pro-slavery sources, as the case may be. Goodbye to Uncle Tom is as timely and significant as it
is readable.
Henry
Walter
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 943, 6 September 1957, Page 16
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338MAN AGAINST MYTH New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 943, 6 September 1957, Page 16
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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