In response to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, Harriet Beecher Stowe, writer, teacher and abolitionist, wrote the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly", an anti-slavery novel which was the best selling novel of the 19th century, helping lay the groundwork for the Civil War and which was published on this day in 1852. While people today tend to criticize the book for it's negative stereotypes, it was a very important part of our anti-slavery and American history with even Abraham Lincoln, upon meeting Stowe, saying "So this is the little lady who started this great war".
