- On View
- Slavery and Freedom Gallery
- Museum Maps
- Objects in this Location
- Exhibition
- Slavery and Freedom
- Written by
- Stowe, Harriet Beecher, American, 1811 - 1896
- Published by
- John P. Jewett & Company, American, 1846 - 1860
- Date
- 1852
- Medium
- ink on paper
- Dimensions
- H x W x D (Closed): 9 5/16 × 6 5/16 × 7/8 in. (23.7 × 16 × 2.2 cm)
- H x W x D (Open): 9 5/16 × 12 1/2 × 7/8 in. (23.7 × 31.8 × 2.2 cm)
- Caption
- Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852
- An international bestseller, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s sentimental novel brought widespread attention to the issue of slavery. Cleverly adapting consumer culture to their cause, Stowe and other antislavery advocates spread the abolitionist message on inexpensive items. At school, children might encounter an antislavery primer beginning, "A is for Abolitionist—A man who wants to free the wretched slave." On her dressing table, a woman might apply makeup from small box declaring, "Am I not a man and a brother?" In many homes, Americans read the bestseller Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
- Source: Nancy Bercaw, Curator, Slavery and Freedom
- Description
- This book is a first edition of the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It has paper covers and is printed in black-and-white throughout, with the text of the novel printed in two columns on each page. Adhesive residue on the left side of the front and back covers indicates a lost binding cover. The back cover features a list of other items available from the publisher, John P. Jewett & Company.
- Place printed
- Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Slavery and Freedom Objects
- Books and Published Materials
- Movement
- Abolitionist movement
- Type
- books
- Topic
- Antislavery
- Domestic slave trade
- Fugitive enslaved
- Literature
- Race relations
- Self-liberation
- Slavery
- Stereotypes
- U.S. History, 1815-1861
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Object number
- 2011.26.6
- Restrictions & Rights
- Public domain
- Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.




