Friday, March 20, 2009

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Today in 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin in response to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which required US citizens to return escaped slaves to their former owners.

American author and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) had a lasting impact on American literature and politics. The novel’s melodramatic dialogue and events cast the slavery debate in stark terms of good and evil. Stowe’s novel drew greater numbers of people to the abolitionist cause in the North and stirred outrage in the South.

This quotation is from Encarta. For further details see:

http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_762503972/Uncle_Tom's_Cabin_and_American_Culture.html

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