Uncle Tom’s Cabin

The best-selling novel of the nineteenth century, Harriet Beecher Stowe's powerful abolitionist novel fueled the fire of the human rights debate, contributing to the outbreak of the American Civil War. Most immediately, the novel served as a response to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made it illegal to give aid or assistance to a runaway slave. Under this legislation, Southern slaves who escaped to the North had to flee to Canada in order to find real freedom. Denouncing the institution of slavery in dramatic terms, the incendiary novel remains a classic of American literature today.

In debt, Kentucky farmer Arthur Shelby reluctantly decides to trade two of his slaves. The two—middle-aged Uncle Tom and young Harry—are to be sold to Mr. Haley, a detestable slave trader. In order to protect her son, Eliza, Harry's mother and Mrs. Shelby's maid, makes a dramatic escape with him over the Ohio River. Meanwhile, Uncle Tom, who refuses to run away, is separated from his family and sent down river to be traded on the slave market. The novel progresses as the two stories move toward two very different forms of freedom, the juxtaposed narratives serving to highlight the harsh reality of slavery.