Stowe's Cabin, Home & Abroad

On March 20 in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabinwas published. Although popular enough when it had appeared earlier in serial form, at least one book publisher turned it down on the grounds that a novel by a woman on such a controversial subject was too risky. He must have regretted it: the novel sold 10,000 copies in the first week, 300,000 copies in a year, and became America's first million-seller. Those who attacked it either disputed Stowe's portrayal of slavery and slaveholders or were aghast that such truths -- the beatings, the forced sex -- had been voiced by a woman. The first ............
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