Uncle Tom-s Cabin

The first American novel to become an international best-seller, Stowe's book charts the paths from slavery to freedom of fugitives who escape the chains of American chattel slavery, and of a martyr who transcends all earthly ties. At the middle of the nineteenth-century, the names of its characters - Little Eva, Topsy, Uncle Tom - were known around the world. This edition locates Uncle Tom's Cabin within the context of African-American writing. Its Introduction discusses African responses to Stowe's novel over the last century and a half and its appendices include excerpts from popular slave narratives.