After many years of the harsh years of slavery one little book became the catalyst for the Civil War. Harriet Beecher Stowe was an Northern girl who’s father got moved down south and she finally saw the real caps behind slaveryReminiscent of the news coverage to violent reaction to Civil Rights marches in the South during the 1960’s, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book "Uncle Tom’s Cabin" brought about a sense of outrage in America that had not previously been seen. Stowe’s revealed the cruelty of slavery in the South and the complicity of its neighbors to the North. Her book, more than anything, galvanize White women to demand that slavery be abolitioned. Many White women had been previously seeking rights for themselves. Their priorities, however, were changed by Mrs. Stowe’s works. Abolitionist organizations sprang up all over the North. For the first time, White women saw themselves playing pivotal roles in the politics of the day. This polarized the North and South on the issue of the rights of the State versus the rights of the Federal government.

In 1856, the Republican party was established to fight against the expansion of slavery in the new territories in the West. Abraham Lincoln was the leader of this group and was a main abolitionist. During his presidential campaign, however, he did promise Southern voters that he would not push for abolishment in the states where slavery was currently legal.

Bibliography

Henry Birdoff Collection

1901 Program for Uncle Tom's Cabin at the New York Academy. The Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Hartford, CT

Brown, Sterling

1937 The Negro in American Fiction. New York: Atheneum

Lowance, Mason I., Jr., and Ellen Westbrook

1994 "Introduction." In The Stowe Debate: Rhetorical Strategies in Uncle Tom's Cabin, edited by Mason I. Lowance, Jr., Ellen Westbrook, and R.C. De Prospo, 3-8. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

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