On March 20, 1852, the completed version of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly was published in book form. It had begun to appear in serialized form in June 1851 in the abolitionist weekly The National Era.
Since its first appearance in serial form and as a book 160 years ago, Stowe’s novel –and its author– have been celebrated, criticized, lauded and vilified. When Lincoln met the diminutive Stowe at the White House after the Civil War began, he supposedly told her, “So you’re the little lady who made this great war.”
Whether Lincoln said it or not, there is no question that the book helped galvanize public opposition to slavery in America and deepened the growing split that led to the Civil War. It may not be America’s greatest book. But few books have been as important in changing the course of America’s history.
Stowe began writing the book in reaction to the Fugitive Slave Act, one of a group of laws enacted together and known as the Compromise of 1850. The law, which made the return of runaways a matter of federal policy and gave free rein to slave catchers to arbitrarily arrest any black person as a potential fugitive, stoked the fires of the Abolitionist movement in America.
What Harriet Beecher Stowe did with her book was put a human face on an issue that had been dominated by political catchwords and euphemisms like “servitude” and “states’ rights.” For the first time, she made Americans care about slaves as people with hopes, dreams, loves and loyalty.
Here are some resources for exploring Stowe, the book and its remarkable impact on American history.
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford. Connecticut.
The Josiah Henson Historic site, home of the former slave and Underground Railroad organizer whose memoir Stowe credited as the source for the character of Uncle Tom, the hero of the novel.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture, a multimedia archive at the University of Virginia on the publication history of the book.
You can also read more about Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the approach of the Civil War in Don’t Know Much About® the Civil War
The paperback edition had been released with a new cover to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil war.
