Abolitionism in America

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Engraving of Harriet Beecher Stowe, ca. 1852.
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Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly. Boston: J. P. Jewett; Cleveland: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, 1852. 2 vols.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin
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Born in 1811 to a strict Calvinist family in Litchfield, Connecticut, Harriet Beecher Stowe quickly rose to fame after publishing her most famous work in 1852. Recently, renewed interest in the sentimental novel, and in the impact of Stowe’s novels on her contemporaries, has helped to revitalize the author’s work and to secure its place in the American literary canon.

Initially, publishers shied away from Stowe’s novel because of its regional divisiveness; but finally John Jewett, encouraged by his wife, decided to publish the book. Stowe’s two-volume novel sold a staggering 10,000 copies in its first week, and 300,000 copies by the end of its first year.

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Cornell University Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Cornell University Library