Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1853, Princeton University
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In 1852, American abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel which explored the cruelty of Southern chattel slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an immediate success, selling over 300,000 copies in the first year. The book brought widespread attention to the plight of enslaved Africans. Additionally, the success of Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped legitimize the role of women in the anti-slavery movement, many of whom had been prevented from so much as speaking at abolitionist meetings. The book also fanned the flames of regional conflicts, to the point that President Abraham Lincoln joked in 1862 that Harriet Beecher Stowe was “the little lady who started this great war.”
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