Significance in American history

Uncle Tom's Cabin was an overnight success, becoming the best-selling novel of the 19th century and translated in over 60 languages. It inspired political debate on the Fugitive Slave Act and the ethics of slavery. The novel fueled the regional conflicts between the North and the South that would eventually lead to the Civil War. The abolition movement grew stronger, and Stowe's goal was accomplished when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln. As the president famously said, Stowe was indeed "the little woman who wrote the book that started [the Civil] war."

In this section, discover the initial reactions to Uncle Tom's Cabin, the adaptations that infused themselves into American culture, and the relationship between the novel and other events in the movement to abolish slavery.