Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book published in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe. In this novel of hers she did the best she could to portray the entire range of slavery, from the good owners and how they treated their slaves to the cruel owners. She even went into the depth of describing how they were brought to America and how they tried to escape their plantation owners. Uncle Tom was described as a Christ-like black hero who was a slave of a very brutal owner, Simon Legree. Simon would beat Tom only because he wouldn't tell where two slaves were hiding.

Uncle Tom's Cabin in its first year sold about 100,000 copies of its two-edition sets, and within a year she sold 300,000 copies of her cheap single volume editions, which sold for thirty seven and a half cents each. Through the years Uncle Tom's Cabin was becoming more widely known though plays, musical comedies, and whatever it could be turned into. Crowds were going to their local fairs and circuses to see any version of this touching story they could see. As a best seller, this novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe was making people cry all over the new nation. Some even think it was possible that Lincoln couldn't have been elected without it.