Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe was appalled by slavery, and she took one of the few options open to nineteenth-century women who wanted to affect public opinion: she wrote a novel, a huge, enthralling narrative that claimed the heart, soul, and politics of pre-Civil War Americans. An overtly moralistic work of unabashed propaganda, it is an attempt to make whites–North and South–see slaves as mothers, fathers, and children–as human beings. Her basic question remains penetrating even today: “Is man ever a creature to be trusted with wholly irresponsible power?” Includes unique illustrations.