Uncle Tom's Cabin is a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published as a book on March 20, 1852. The story was first printed as a serial in the journal National Era. The story went over 40 weeks, beginning with the issue on June 5, 1851. The book sparked a fierce public debate, thereby contributing to the later abolition of slavery in North America. The book was a contributing factor to the South States starting the American Civil War by opening fire on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.
As a passenger on a steamer on the Ohio River, Stowe was the shocked eyewitness to the sale of a human being, forcing a married woman away from her husband. Stowe's own husband and brother had, on one occasion, had to accompany a fugitive slave girl in the middle of the night. Even she had written the letters of a former slave woman (now the Stowe's house servant) to the woman's husband in Kentucky who was still a slave, but enjoyed such confidence from his master that he freely traveled back and forth between Kentucky and Ohio, and thus could easily have escaped - but refused to break the agreement with his master, even when his owner, year after year, had postponed keeping his promise to set him free. It was the sense of honor and loyalty of this African American that remained slave rather than breaking his master's trust that first inspired Stowe to Uncle Tom's character. Â
The author was also inspired by the slave Josiah Henson. His cabin in Washington D.C., originally part of a 1,497-acre tobacco plant, was purchased by Maryland officials in 2006 to ensure its preservation. However, Henson was far from any Uncle Tom figure. On the contrary, he tried with great determination to redeem himself, and ended up fleeing to Canada in 1830.
