Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin

March 20, 1852United Stateshigh importance

Harriet Beecher Stowe's serialized novel humanized enslaved characters for millions of Northern readers.

Though a work of fiction, Uncle Tom's Cabin depicted separation of families and cruelty plainly enough to galvanize abolitionist sympathy and anger defenders of slavery; Abraham Lincoln supposedly quipped Stowe started the war with a pen.

Sources

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/march-20

Key Takeaways

Made antislavery feelings culturally mainstream in parts of the North

Provoked proslavery writers to publish counter-novels

Key Figures

Harriet Beecher Stowe

June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896

Author whose novel *Uncle Tom's Cabin* stirred antislavery sentiment across the North.