Little Lady Starts Big War
1852 AD
1852 1852
69.57W43.55N
LIT

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT
	Harriet Beecher Stowe had poured her heart into her anti-slavery book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." But neither she or her first publisher thought it would be a big success. The publisher was so doubtful he wanted her to split the publishing costs with him, and all she hoped was that it would make enough money for her to buy a new silk dress.
	But when the first 5,000 copies were printed in 1852, they sold out in two days. In a year the book had sold 300,000 copies in the United States and 150,000 in England. For a while it outsold every book in the world except the Bible.
	Within six months of its release a play was made from the book which ran 350 performances in New York and remained America's most popular play for 80 years.
	It might appear that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was universally popular, but this was certainly not true. Many people during those pre-Civil War days -- particularly defenders of the slavery system -- condemned it as false propaganda and poorly written melodrama.
	Harriet did have strong religious views against slavery (When asked how she came to write the book, she replied: "God wrote it."), and she tried to convince people slavery was wrong, so perhaps the book could be considered propaganda. But if so, it was true propaganda, in that it accurately depicted the evils of slavery.
	Though she was born in Connecticut in 1832, as a young woman she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, when her father accepted the presidency of newly-founded Lane Theological Seminary. Ohio was a free state, but just across the Ohio River in Kentucky, Harriet saw slavery in action.
	She lived 18 years in Cincinnati, marrying a professor at the college, Calvin Stowe. In 1850 they moved to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where Calvin taught religion.
	Then, in 1851, despite her busyness as a mother, Harriet Beecher Stowe began her book.
	Its vast influence strengthened the anti-slavery movement and antagonized defenders of the slave system. Some think it helped bring on the American Civil War.
	In fact, when Abraham Lincoln met Harriet at the White House during the Civil War, he said, "So, this is the little lady who started this big war."
	Stowe continued her anti-slavery writings through such publications as the "Atlantic Monthly," and "Christian Union," and in 1853 published a "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin," which gave the sources showing the authenticity of the horrors she described in the book.