Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a novel by American abolitionist author Harriet Beecher Stowe which treats slavery as a central theme. The work was first published on March 20, 1852. The novel soon became the best-selling novel of the 19th century (and the second best-selling book of the century after the Bible)http://www.enotes.com/uncle-toms/ and is credited with helping to end slavery in the United States. Despite this, the book also helped create and spread common stereotypes about African Americans, many of which endure to this day.

References

• Lott, Eric. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN 0195078322. The information on "Tom shows" comes from chapter 8: "Uncle Tomitudes: Racial Melodrama and Modes of Production" (p. 211-233)
• Hagedorn, Ann. Beyond The River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad. Simon & Schuster, 2002. ISBN 0684870657