Pathos is the primary method of persuasion Beecher Stowe uses in Uncle Tom's Cabin. She often employs pathos in the form of direct addresses to the reader, as exemplified by the below passage from Chapter 7, fittingly titled "The Mother's Struggle":
If it were your Harry, mother, or your Willie, that were going to be torn from you by a brutal trader, to-morrow morning,—if you had seen the man, and heard that the papers were signed and delivered, and you had only from twelve o’clock till morning to make good your escape,—how fast could you walk? How many miles could you make in those few brief hours, with the darling at your bosom,—the little sleepy head on your shoulder,—the small, soft arms trustingly holding on to your neck?
The narrator directly asks readers to place themselves in Eliza’s shoes. This direct address is a form of emotional persuasion. Beecher Stowe's readers were fellow white people who likely did not know the "true living realities" of slavery. Moreover, her intended audience was women like herself, who understood what it was like to be a mother, daughter, or wife. In using direct address, Stowe urges her readers to broaden their perspective and empathize with the slave experience. In presenting Eliza's experience to the reader in this way, Beecher Stowe also underscores just how brutal and inhumane the system of slavery was. Through bold language like in the passage above, Beecher Stowe hoped to convince her readers to take up the abolitionist cause. Indeed, the publication had a profound impact on American attitudes towards African Americans and slavery, and some say the novel helped precipitate the Civil War.
