Uncle Tom

One of the most famous American novels “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was first published in two volumes on March 20th 1852. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel sold an amazing three hundred thousand copies in the first year. It is a melodramatic tail which tells the story of runaway slaves, overseers and what slavery did to families. This book raised the number of abolitionist and enraged those who defended the practice. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” has caused a great deal of controversy over the years, with first whites feeling that the black characters in the book were to positive, than blacks criticizing that those same character were formulaic. Regardless of the controversies “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” brought issue of slavery into the homes of many Northern white Americans and made many of them into abolitionist sympathizers.

Other reading that might be of interest
The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom Mania: Slavery, Minstrelsy, And Transatlantic Culture In The 1850s