ABSTRACT
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Initially published as a serial in the abolitionist paper The National Era (1851-52) and then in book form (1852), Uncle Tom's Cabin immortalized Harriet Beecher Stowe as "the little lady who made this big war," in Abraham Lincoln's famous description in 1863. The novel was written in reaction to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made it illegal to assist an escaped slave, and effectively transformed the whole of the United States into a slave-holding nation. It quickly became a runaway bestseller, probably proportionately the best-selling novel of all time. It was the first American novel to sell more than a million copies and was quickly translated into 37 languages. However, Uncle Tom's Cabin does not appear in any of the classic works of American literary criticism until the 19805 for three reasons: it was written by a woman for women, it had a cultural and propagandist function, and it was popular. Uncle Tom's Cabin, therefore, offers the absolute test case for the definition of aesthetic values in literature. Its effectiveness as abolitionist propaganda is unparalleled. The history of its reception also offers a history of American literary and cultural criticism.
