CREATED BY: Harriet Beecher Stowe
FIRST APPEARANCE: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
AREAS OF INFLUENCE: Perhaps Abraham Lincoln put it best. It’s said that, upon meeting the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin during the Civil War, the president told her that she was the woman whose book started the conflict. It’s a grand claim to make about a novel and its central character, but Uncle Tom—a slave who is eventually whipped to death—put a face to the national issue of slavery. At the same time, Uncle Tom’s forbearance in the midst of the evils of slavery also turned him into a negative example. His submissive behavior continues to resonate, long after the Civil War, as an example of the need to stand up for oneself.
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