In A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe chronicled the evidence she employed to write her moving novel of the same name. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was so popular it sold over 300,000 copies in the United States in its first year. This letter reveals the rapture in which her novel enthralled one family. Stephen Higginson II wrote to his son and sent a copy of the “Key” the day it became available. He marveled at its prepublication sales and reported that his wife was already “fearfully dipping” into the book. Higginson pinpointed the importance of A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin by stating the facts are more provoking than fiction. He hoped the two books would educate “even New England people” to the true horrors of slavery.
Higginson II, Stephen. Letter to Stephen Higginson III from his father. April 15, 1850. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l05-130/. Accessed on November 13, 2024.
Please note: Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.