Uncle Tom's Cabin

        Published on March 20, 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin was the top selling book of the 19th Century selling over one million copies in Great Britain, and 300,000 copies in the United States during its first year of publication.  For many the novel became a rallying cry for the abolition of slavery while at the same time outraging many Southerners.
         Author Harriet Beecher Stowe came from an established New England family.  Her father was the famous minister Lyman Beecher, her sister Catherine was influential educator, and her brothers Henry Ward, Charles, Thomas, and Edward were successful theologians and ministers.  The Beechers were some of the leading abolitionists in the U.S. with strong ties to the Underground Railroad.
        Harrit married abolitionist professor Calvin Ellis Stowe in 1836 in Cincinnati.  While living in Cincinnati the Stowes helped shelter escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. Harriet interviewed a number of runaways who would later serve as inspiration for characters in her famous novel.
        It was during their time living in Cincinnati that Harriet lost her eighteen month old son to a cholera outbreak that killed thousands of people in the city.  Harriet's pain over the loss of her son remained with her the rest of her life.  She felt that she understood how helpless a slave woman must feel losing their child to an auction and not being able to do anything about it.
       The Stowes were living in Brunswick Maine when Congress passed a newer more sever Fugitive Slave Act.  This law eliminated the "gray area" surrounding slavery.  Every American was expected to report a suspected runaway slave failing to do so would guarantee imprisonment or a heavy fine.  Being a bystander was no longer an option regarding slavery.
      As she wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe wanted to create characters that would show the evil and horrors of slavery through their words and their actions.  Stowe understood that if her characters showed her readers how slavery was wrong and needed to be abolished the message would be better received than any abolitionist newspaper article or speech.  She understood the power of sympathy and empathy.
         Many families in the United States understood the heartbreak of losing a child to an illness or disease, the sense of helplessness as a loved one  slowly dies.  Stowe wanted her readers to relate to their own personal loss with the loss her character Eliza would face if her son was separated from her.  When readers became upset over the fate of Eliza and her child it was not because they were slaves it was because they were a family in danger.  Once readers made that connection, Stowe knew that her message got across.