The controversial anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published and becomes a bestseller. And the German revolutionary Karl Marx publishes a series of articles on his communist beliefs in the New York Tribune. At home in the White House, there is decay. Guests notice the nicked and tattered furniture and are surprised by springs poking out from the frayed cushions. It has been more than thirty years since the building was refurbished after being burned in the War of 1812.
