DGR wrote his satire on Stowe's celebrated novel Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852 or perhaps 1853—in any case, not long after the novel appeared in 1852. The associated drawing must date from the same time. WMR believes DGR may not have read, or at any rate finished, the book which WMR—unlike his brother—quite admired (as one would expect). The difference in the social and political attitudes of the two men is nicely illustrated in their different opinions about Stowe's book. WMR stood firmly with Mill's view, articulated in his 1850 essay “The Negro Question”, which was a response to Carlyle's jingoist essay of 1849, “Occasional Discourse on the Nigger Question”. According to WMR, DGR was amused by Carlyle's essay and as WMR wrote when he first published the parody in 1898, “in some sense” agreed with Carlyle. Both of these essays first appeared in Fraser's Magazine
The text is a parody of Stephen Foster's minstrel song “Old Uncle Ned”, first published in 1848. The drawing was probably made to accompany the poem, rather than the other way round.
Textual History: Composition
No manuscript for the poem has appeared.
Printing History
The parody and the drawing were first published together by WMR in 1898 in The Pall Mall Magazine (vol. 16, 493-494) and first collected in 1911.
This collection contains 3 texts and images, including:
1911 edition
Pall Mall Magazine reproduction
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
DGR wrote his satire on Stowe's celebrated novel Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852 or perhaps 1853—in any case, not long after the novel appeared in 1852. The associated drawing must date from the same time. WMR believes DGR may not have read, or at any rate finished, the book which WMR—unlike his brother—quite admired (as one would expect). The difference in the social and political attitudes of the two men is nicely illustrated in their different opinions about Stowe's book. WMR stood firmly with Mill's view, articulated in his 1850 essay “The Negro Question”, which was a response to Carlyle's jingoist essay of 1849, “Occasional Discourse on the Nigger Question”. According to WMR, DGR was amused by Carlyle's essay and as WMR wrote when he first published the parody in 1898, “in some sense” agreed with Carlyle. Both of these essays first appeared in Fraser's Magazine
The text is a parody of Stephen Foster's minstrel song “Old Uncle Ned”, first published in 1848. The drawing was probably made to accompany the poem, rather than the other way round.
Textual History: Composition
No manuscript for the poem has appeared.
Printing History
The parody and the drawing were first published together by WMR in 1898 in The Pall Mall Magazine (vol. 16, 493-494) and first collected in 1911.