Harriet Beecher Stowe of New England shook
the conscience of millions with Uncle Tom’s
Cabin (published in 1852).

Her famous book gained immediate success
in spite of attempts to suppress it in the South.
The first American novel with a black hero, it
stirred a deep new sympathy for the slave.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin told the people how families
suffered when slaves were sent away to be sold.
Husbands were taken away from their wives and
children from their mothers. Many people had
never considered the conditions in which slaves
lived.

 
“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe
this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. It will be all one thing or all another.”   Abraham Lincoln
 

Ann Shlapobersky & Gail Mann .