Today in American history…the anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was published on March 20, 1852.

Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the also the second best-selling book of the 19th century (following the Bible).

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is often credited with aiding to fuel the abolitionist cause of the 1850’s. In the first year of its publication it sold 300,000 copies in the United States.