Uncle Tom's Cabin was published first as a serial in the magazine National Era in 1851. It was so successful that it was published as a novel in two volumes in 1852 and became one of the most influential novels in American history. When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1962, it is said that he greeted her with, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!"
The novel tells the story of two slaves compelled to leave the Shelby estate in Kentucky—Uncle Tom, who is sold away from his wife Aunt Chloe and his children to pay off Mr. Shelby's debts, and Eliza, who runs away with her young son Harry so that he will not be sold and taken away from her....
