Uncle Tom's Cabin

by Stowe, Harriet Beecher; Curtis, Christopher Paul

• ISBN13: 9780689851261
• ISBN10: 068985126X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-06-01
• Publisher: Aladdin

Summary

Uncle Tom's Cabinwas a sensation upon its publication in 1852. In its first year it sold 300,000 copies, and has since been translated into more than twenty languages. This powerful story of one slave's unbreakable spirit holds an important place in American history, as it helped solidify the anti-slavery sentiments of the North, and moved a nation to civil war.

Author Biography

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE began her writing career by writing pieces for magazines to compliment her husbands' meager salary as a professor. She won a short story prize from Western Monthly Magazine, and in 1834, her short-story collection The Mayflower was published. At this time, Stowe was living in Cincinnati, Ohio, which was just across the river from the slave trade and gave her the impetus to write Uncle Tom's Cabin.

In 1850, the family movied to Boston at the height of the public furor over the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, which mandated the return of runaway slaves already in the North to their owners. Stowe set about writing a novel illustrating the moral responsibility of the entire nation for the cruel system. She forwarded the first episodes to the editor of the Washington anti-slavery weekly, The National Era, where it was published it in 40 installments. Although many Northerners considered slavery a political institution for which they had no personal responsibility, Uncle Tom's Cabin was becoming a national sensation.

The episodes attracted the attention of Boston publisher, J. P. Jewett, who published the work in March of 1852. Uncle Tom's Cabin immediately broke all sales records of the day: selling half-a-million copies by 1857. Stowe went on to many other literary projects, producing about a book a year from 1862 to 1884, but she is still most remembered as the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Preface to the First Edition	xiii
In Which the Reader Is Introduced to a Man of Humanity	1	(16)
The Mother	17	(5)
The Husband and Father	22	(8)
An Evening in Uncle Tom's Cabin	30	(18)
Showing the Feelings of Living Property on Changing Owners	48	(13)
Discovery	61	(14)
The Mother's Struggle	75	(20)
Eliza's Escape	95	(24)
In Which It Appears That a Senator Is but a Man	119	(25)
The Property Is Carried Off	144	(15)
In Which Property Gets Into an Improper State of Mind	159	(21)
Select Incident of Lawful Trade	180	(26)
The Quaker Settlement	206	(14)
Evangeline	220	(15)
Of Tom's New Master, and Various Other Matters	235	(24)
Tom's Mistress and Her Opinions	259	(28)
The Freeman's Defence	287	(26)
Miss Ophelia's Experiences and Opinions	313	(25)
Miss Ophelia's Experiences and Opinions, Continued	338	(30)
Topsy	368	(23)
Kentuck	391	(8)
``The Grass Withereth---The Flower Fadeth''	399	(11)
Henrique	410	(12)
Foreshadowings	422	(10)
The Little Evangelist	432	(8)
Death	440	(20)
``This Is the Last of Earth.''	460	(11)
Reunion	471	(22)
The Unprotected	493	(12)
The Slave Warehouse	505	(16)
The Middle Passage	521	(9)
Dark Places	530	(13)
Cassy	543	(11)
The Quadroon's Story	554	(16)
The Tokens	570	(10)
Emmeline and Cassy	580	(11)
Liberty	591	(10)
The Victory	601	(16)
The Stratagem	617	(15)
The Martyr	632	(10)
The Young Master	642	(10)
An Authentic Ghost Story	652	(10)
Results	662	(13)
The Liberator	675	(6)
Concluding Remarks	681