Uncle Toms Cabin Research Paper

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an extremely influential novel written by a simple housewife and published in March of 1852, can be credited with prompting the start of an immense part of history, the American Civil War. Although the book was banned in the South because of its controversial topic, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best selling novel of its time, only second to the Holy Bible. Stowe’s novel sent many Southern slave owners into a fury, but it would also sway the minds of indecisive citizens of the North to a more abolitionist mindset. Lincoln is even quoted in saying to her in 1862, "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!" (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896)
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of this disputed novel, was an abolitionist and while living in Ohio she witnessed the hardships and strife black men, women, and children faced trying to escape for their freedom. Her family was made of devoted members of the abolitionist movement and both of her siblings wrote pieces speaking out against slavery. In the late 1850s Stowe received a letter written by her sister-in-law Isabella Beecher which said, “Now Hattie, if I could use a pen as you can, I would write something that would make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is.” (Tackach 27). Her …show more content…
The tale of Uncle Tom was originally published as a 45-part series in an abolitionist newspaper from June 5, 1851 to April 1, 1852. The public instantly fell in love with Stowe’s writing and on average she was selling 10,000 copies a week and in the end over 300,000 copies nationwide (Kane “Harriet Beecher Stowe & ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’: Changing History with a Best-Seller). The gruesome reality of the story changed the minds of a lot of citizens of the United States who accepted slavery as being okay into realizing slavery is an abhorrent evil that not only needs to stop expanding, but demolished