16 The American Civil WarHarriet Beecher Stowe. author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, spent just one weekend in a slave state and
yet from Maine wrote the most popular novel of slavery of the nineteenth century. Her portrayal
of slavery's cruelty sold over 300.000 books in America, and so powerful was her depiction of the
slave trade that it brought tears to Queen Victoria's eyes. (Ann Ronan Picture Library)