Excerpt from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Excerpt from Uncle Tom's Cabin
First published in 1852
A novel about the evils of slavery
"'Lucy,' said the trader, 'your child's gone; you may as well know it first as last. You see, I know'd you couldn't take him down south; and I got a chance to sell him to a first-rate family, that'll raise him better than you can.'"
From Uncle Tom's Cabin
In the years leading up to the Civil War, growing numbers of people wanted to abolish (put an end to) slavery in the United States. People who actively fought to end slavery were known as abolitionists. During the 1830s and 1840s, abolitionists distributed millions of antislavery newsletters and pamphlets in Northern cities. The abolitionist movement gradually gained strength and became more vocal during this time. But slavery remained important to the cotton-growing economy of the South. In addition, many people continued to believe that black people were inferior to white people and did not deserve the same rights. As a result, most Southerners were determined to resist the abolitionists' efforts to interfere with their way of life.
In 1850, Southerners in the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act.
