{"id":272,"date":"2011-04-01T18:51:08","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T18:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/news\/specialcollections\/?p=272"},"modified":"2011-04-01T18:51:08","modified_gmt":"2011-04-01T18:51:08","slug":"uncle-toms-cabin-is-featured-book-for-april-2011-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/2011\/04\/01\/uncle-toms-cabin-is-featured-book-for-april-2011-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncle Tom’s Cabin is Featured Book for April 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"
U<\/em>ncle Tom’s cabin; or, Life among the lowly was a novel written by American abolitionist and author <\/em>Harriet Beecher Stowe<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0Living in New Brunswick, Maine, the wife of a Bowdoin college professor, and mother of six children, Harriet Beecher Stowe, started writing magazine and newspaper articles as a means to supplement her family\u2019s limited income.\u00a0 Prompted by Congress\u2019s passage of the Fugitive Slave Laws in 1850, and inspired by the memoirs of the Reverend Josiah Henson, a former slave, Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin was first published in 1851 as a 40 week serial in the National Era, a weekly anti-slavery newspaper. <\/em><\/div>\n

Due to the success of Stowe\u2019s work, the story was re-published as a novel in 1852 by John P. Jewett, an ardent anti-slavery Boston publisher.\u00a0 While testimonies and memoirs of former slaves helped fuel the abolitionist movement, this novel “helped lay the groundwork for the <\/em>Civil War<\/em><\/a>“, according to historian Will Kaufman (2006). \u00a0\u00a0Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin was the biggest selling novel of the nineteenth century, having sold over 300,000 copies in the United States in 1852.\u00a0 In England, more than 200,000 copies were sold that same year.\u00a0 Although translated into several different languages, by 1853, the book\u2019s sales abruptly stopped, and John P. Jewett was forced to cease its publication.\u00a0 The loss of sales directly resulted in Jewett\u2019s bankruptcy, and it was not until the early years of the Civil War, that sales of the book once again surged.\u00a0 The novel was then reprinted with success in 1862 by the Boston publishing firm of Ticknor and Fields.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/a>
Illustration from Uncle Tom's Cabin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The social and political impact of Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin, both in the United States and Europe, cannot be under-stated.\u00a0 In the south, the novel was met with criticism and outrage by slave owners, supporters and residents who felt it was not accurate representation of southern life, slavery, and plantations. \u00a0In the north, the book served to galvanize the anti-slavery sentiments, \u00a0and solidify the abolitionist fronts,\u00a0 particularly in light of the recent passage of the Fugitive Slave Laws.\u00a0 The belief that Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin split the nation in half over the issue of slavery is underscored by President Lincoln\u2019s apocryphal statement to Harriet Beecher Stowe during a White House visit.\u00a0 In 1862, President Lincoln supposedly declared upon their meeting: “So this is the little lady who started this great war.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Special Collections department houses several different editions of Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly. April\u2019s Book of the Month is a first edition published in 1852 by John P. Jewett.\u00a0 The two volume set is bound in brown cotton cloth.\u00a0 A gilt vignette of an illustration from the title page is located in the center of the front cover.\u00a0 The back cover is also decorated but is stamped in blind.\u00a0 The novel\u2019s title, author\u2019s name and volume number are stamped in gilt on the spine. \u00a0Believing the book would be a financial and literary success, Jewett hired Hammatt Billings, a Boston artist and architect to create six illustrations depicting various story scenes to be included in the book. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Cover page of Uncle Tom's Cabin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Uncle Tom\u2019s cabin, or, Life among the lowly\u00a0by Harriet Beecher Stowe.\u00a0 1852.\u00a0 Boston :\u00a0 John P. Jewett & Company.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gilt vignette illustration on the front cover.<\/em><\/p>\n

The title page illustration of the characters Chloe, Mose, Pete, Baby and Tom.\u00a0 Engraved illustration is by Hammatt Billings.<\/em><\/p>\n

Entry by Beth Kilmarx, Curator of Rare Books, Binghamton University Libraries’ Special Collections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uncle Tom’s cabin; or, Life among the lowly was a novel written by American abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe. \u00a0Living in New Brunswick, Maine, the wife of a Bowdoin college professor, and mother of six children, Harriet Beecher Stowe, started writing magazine and newspaper articles as a means to supplement her family\u2019s limited income.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-featured-book"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}