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Essay Uncle Tom's Cabin as written by Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Uncle Tom's Cabin as written by Harriet Beecher Stowe

The novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin as written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and published in the United States in 1852. The novel depicted slavery as a moral evil and was the cause of much controversy at the time & long after. Uncle Tom’s Cabin had impact on various groups & publics. It caused outrage in the South and received praise in the North. It is in opinions and historical movements that the impact of this novel can be justified and shows how its publication was a turning point which helped bring about the Civil War. When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 after the beginning of the American Civil War, he supposedly said to her, “ So you’re the little woman that …show more content…

Stowe convinced readers that the institution of slavery itself was evil, because it supported people like Legree and enslaved people like Uncle Tom. Because of her work, thousands rallied to the anti-slavery cause. Due to popular demand Stowe’s work was published in book form as Uncle Tom’s Cabin on March 20th, 1852. It was not the first anti-slavery novel, but it was by far the most successful. The novel sold 10,000 copies in the first week and 30,000by the end of the first year. Within two years Uncle Tom’s Cabin had sold 2,000,000 copies worldwide. Performances of a play based on the novel drew audiences numbering in the hundreds of thousands. For many Northerners who had no experience with slavery, the novel personalised the evils of slavery. Some Northerners, however, criticised the book, some because they believed it exaggerated slavery’s cruelty but some abolitionists because they thought it downplayed slavery’s cruelty. Although it created some divisions in Northern society, the boundary lines between North & South were clearer than ever. Abolitionists especially, loved the novel and the way in which it had impact on the North and South. Northern and Southern authors wrote at least 25 proslavery and “Anti-Tom” novels between 1852 and the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. Anti-slavery writings were significant in the abolitionists’ fight against slavery. Using books,

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