Photo credit: Tom Jenz
"Uncle Tom in the Shadows"
The novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” or “Life Among the Lowly,” was a best selling sensation when it appeared in 1851 in serial form in the Washington National Era newspaper, an abolitionist weekly. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the book, an anti-slavery story which told of the absurd racial inequality in America. It depicted slaves deprived of their children or forced to helplessly watch them die.
Unfortunately, long after the Civil War, the term "Uncle Tom" has been used as a derogatory epithet for an excessively subservient black man who “acts out” his own lower-class status based on race. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” could be a story of Milwaukee’s central city, its isolated and ignored residents often rendered subservient.
Central City Stories is a collection of visual narratives from Milwaukee's central city by writer and fine arts photographer Tom Jenz. You can see more of his work at TomJenzAmerica.com.
