Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was first published in 1852. It tells the story of Uncle Tom, a slave who is sent to the slave market after his previous owners needed to raise funds. Whilst on a riverboat, he meets a little white girl, Eva. After she falls into the river and Tom saves her, Eva’s grateful father Augustine St. Clare, buys him and takes him to his family home in New Orleans. There, Tom and Eva bond over their Christian faith. St. Clare meanwhile is on a mission to prove to his Northern cousin that whilst he owns slaves, he is not prejudiced towards black people. After a tragedy, Tom is sold on to a vicous man, Simon Legree, and goes through many torments and tortures as he struggles to hold on to his faith. An anti-slavery novel, the book had a huge effect on the prevailing attitudes towards black people in America and slavery in general. Stowe was an abolitionist who supported the Underground Railroad and housed refugee slaves in her home. She claims she was inspired to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin after having a vision of a dying slave during a church service. The book was the best selling novel, and the second best selling book during the nineteenth century (the first was the Bible). Upon publication, the book created a furore amongst slave owners, who responded by bringing out several books of their own. It was however, widely praised by abolitionists, and captured the attention and imagination of many Americans, fuelling the movement to end slavery.