Uncle Tom's Cabin

Plot

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" is an anti-slavery novel that "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War".

Stowe, a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Seminary and an active abolitionist, featured the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of other characters revolve. The sentimental novel depicts the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love can overcome something as destructive as enslavement of fellow human beings.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible.