Background
Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe began to write the story that would become Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1850. She wanted to highlight the trauma and tragedy of slavery in response to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. She based her novel on the stories of people who had escaped slavery, whom she met while working to support the Underground Railroad.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was first published chapter by chapter in The National Era, a weekly anti-slavery newspaper. The National Era had a small audience, but word of the riveting new story spread quickly. Fans shared copies of the newspaper with their families and friends. The story became so popular that it was collected and republished as a book in 1852.
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Advertisement for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ca. 1852, New-York Historical Society Library.
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