The North and the Problem of Slavery

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Torn's Cabin sold over 300,000 copies in its first year of publication alone (1852-53). While reading the book many Northerners decided that slavery and American values were incompatible and that slavery needed to be set on the road to extinction quickly. Some years later Stowe met Abraham Lincoln in the White House. He greeted her: "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war."

In a four to six page essay (typed, double-spaced) explain the persuasiveness and appeal of this book to its Northern audience. Remember that slavery had existed among Americans for over 200 years by 1850 and that no antislavery publication had an impact remotely comparable to Uncle Tom's Cabin. Remember, too, that most Northern whites shared the deeply racist attitudes of Southern whites. For example, about the time of Uncle Tom's Cabin's publication, the state of Illinois passed a law banning free black people from entering the state

The key questions, then, are what historical changes in the United States explain the book's remarkable appeal? And what arguments and scenes did Stowe use in her book to exploit these changes? What, in short, was going on in the North that suddenly made Northerners worry over slavery?