Skip to content

Uncle Tom's Cabin Or, Life Among The Lowly
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Uncle Tom's Cabin Or, Life Among The Lowly Hardcover - 2005 - 1st Edition

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

About this book

In Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriett Beecher Stowe, the title character Uncle Tom is a long-suffering slave, loyal to both his faith and his master. Presented with an opportunity to escape, he instead chooses to remain in slavery to avoid embarrassing his master. After being sold to a slave trader, Tom suffers brutal treatment and is eventually beaten to death for his refusal to betray his friends — made to represent an ideal of true Christianity. Enormously popular (it was the best-selling novel of the 19th century) and influential, it’s publication in 1852 was instrumental in bringing visibility to the cruel reality of slavery. In more recent years, it has come under considerable criticism for its portrayal of meekness and subservience and the phrase “Uncle Tom” is sometimes used as an epithet for someone seen as overly subservient. 

Summary

This unforgettable novel tells the story of Tom, a devoutly Christian slave who chooses not to escape bondage for fear of embarrassing his master. However, he is soon sold to a slave trader and sent down the Mississippi, where he must endure brutal treatment. This is a powerful tale of the extreme cruelties of slavery, as well as the price of loyalty and morality. When first published, it helped to solidify the anti-slavery sentiments of the North, and it remains today as the book that helped move a nation to civil war.

From the publisher

Selling more than 300,000 copies the first year it was published, Stowe's powerful abolitionist novel fueled the fire of the human rights debate in 1852. Supposedly, when Stowe met President Lincoln ten years later, he joked, So this is the little lady who made this big war. The plot centers on Eliza Harris and Tom Shelby, two people who triumph over slavery in very different ways. Today, critics, scholars, and students alike are revisiting this monumental work with fresh eyes and open minds, focusing on Stowe's portrayal of women and the novel's theological underpinnings.

First Edition Identification

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was originally published serially over 40 weeks in the abolitionist journal The National Era, beginning June 5, 1851. It was published by John P. Jewett the following year in two volumes with six illustrated plates by Hammett Billings. The initial printing was 5000 copies and was made available in three different bindings: brown cloth with a gilt ornament on the front board, blue cloth with additional gilt ornamentation, and a paper wrapper. Subsequent editions were issued shortly thereafter, including a holiday “gift edition” in brown gilt cloth with additional illustrations by Billings and an inexpensive “Edition for the Million” in paper wrappers for 37 1/2 cents. The first printing has the following points of issue: “split” instead of “spiled” on page 42 of the first volume, “catechism” rather than “catechism” on page 74 of the second volume, and no attribution to Billings for the engravings. First edition, first printings generally exceed $5,000 and can reach upwards of $15,000 with Stowe’s signature. 

Details

  • Title Uncle Tom's Cabin Or, Life Among The Lowly
  • Author Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition number 1st
  • Edition 1
  • Publisher Thorndike Press
  • Date June 23, 2005
  • ISBN 9780786276844

Hang on… we’re fetching the requested page.