Harriet Elizabeth BEECHER
1851 - Uncle Tom's Cabin Appeared in Serial Form (June 5)

This influential book is often included in lists of "causes of the Civil War" (1861-65). Harriet Beecher Stowe's story first appeared on June 5, 1851, in serial form, a chapter at a time, in a weekly publication called the National Era. It went on to become one of the nation's earliest bestsellers.

Harriet Beecher Stowe cared deeply about human rights. Her family was active in the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to freedom in the North. For 18 years she observed a slave-holding community in Kentucky just across the Ohio River from where she lived in Cincinnati. She didn't like what she saw.

Stowe decided to write a fictional story about slavery and sent it to the editor of an anti-slavery weekly. He paid her $300 for the right to publish her story, and on June 5, 1851, the first chapter appeared in print. Over the next 10 months, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, was published in 40 installments. People started to discuss Uncle Tom's Cabin and pass around the story. In 1852, a Boston publisher issued Uncle Tom's Cabin as a book. It became an instant bestseller. Three hundred thousand copies were sold the first year, and about two million copies were sold by 1857. Before long it seemed that everyone had read it, including the president of the United States!

President Lincoln invited Harriet Beecher Stowe to the White House in 1862. According to legend, he is said to have exclaimed, "So this is the little lady who made this big war?"

www.americaslibrary.gov

June 5, 1851

Learn more about the life of     Harriet Elizabeth BEECHER.

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