Uncle Tom and Sister Maria

The two best-selling books in the US before the Civil War were Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery. On the surface, these two could not be more unalike. Stowe’s work dramatized the moral arguments of abolitionism, changing hearts and minds about slavery, while Monk’s book offered sensational anti-Catholicism. Yet the two works were stories of their age, each focusing primarily on female sexual purity, marriage, and the family. Abolition and anticonvent literature shocked readers with descriptions of rape, torn-apart marriages, and mother–child separations. Depictions of the “erotic South” and “priests’ brothels for women” (convents) contrasted with the era’s vision of “true womanhood,” companionate marriage, and happy homes. This chapter explores how abolitionists and convent opponents advanced their movements by presenting slavery and convents as a threat to womanhood and the family, revealing how these domestic ideals shaped some of the era’s most significant moments.