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When Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in 1852, it ignited a great debate over the practice of slavery in America. A best seller that sold more than one million copies, the novel tells the stories of Tom, a field slave, and Eliza, a household servant, and how they dealt with the horrors of slavery. The book exposed the brutality of slavery to readers in the United States and in other countries. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s fictional portrayal of slavery damaged the claims of southern plantation owners who said slaves were happy with their lives.
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The scenes in this slideshow, inspired by scenes in the novel, appeared on a banner printed in 1852, the same year as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s sensational book was published. The banner is part of the Gilder Lehrman Collection, in New York City. To view this and other objects in the collection, visit the Institute’s website at
www.gilderlehrman.org.
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