The Cabin and Parlor; or, Slaves and Masters
Title page from the first edition of 1852
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| Author | J. Thornton Randolph (pseudonyum of Charles Jacobs Peterson) |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Plantation novel |
| Publisher | T. B. Peterson Ltd. |
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Publication date
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1852 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) & E-book |
| Pages | c.300 pp (May change depending on the publisher and the size of the text) |
The Cabin and Parlor; or, Slaves and Masters is an 1852 novel written by Charles Jacobs Peterson under the pseudonym of J. Thornton Randolph.
The Cabin and Parlor is an example of the pro-slavery plantation literature genre that emerged from the Southern United States in response to the abolitionist novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, which had been published in book form in that year, and had been criticised in the Southern United States for exaggerating the workings of slaveholding.
Whereas the majority of anti-Tom novels focussed on the evils of abolitionism, Peterson instead attacks the capitalist attitudes of the north, as well as their use of "white slaves" (the working classes) over black slaves. This attitude would appear again in Caroline Rush's The North and the South; or, Slavery and Its Contrasts, also published in 1852.
The story begins with the sudden death of a wealthy Virginia landowner, Mr. Courtenay, a kindly plantation owner who has died before being given the opportunity to pay off his debts, leaving his family in debt and facing destitution.
In an effort to pay off the debts, the family sell their slaves, among whom is the kindly Uncle Peter, who takes a liking to Courtenay's daughter, Isabel, and vows to help her in any way possible in thanks for the kindness shown to him by the Courtenays. The money earned is nominal, leaving it to Isabel and her brother Horace to acquire jobs in order to pay the remaining bills and to support their ailing mother.
Isabel finds a job as a schoolteacher, whilst Horace heads to an unidentified city in the north (inferred to be Philadelphia), where he becomes a "Northern slave" (i.e. a clerk) to the malevolent Mr. Sharpe, a ruthless capitalist who works Horace like as though he were a white slave.
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