Writing in response to the Fugitive Slave Act, Stowe highlighted in unadulterated, graphic prose the evils and brutality of slavery. The influence of Stowe’s book in garnering support for the abolitionist movement cannot be overstated. Uncle Tom’s Cabin cleaved a deep wound between North and South over the future of slavery. When President Lincoln met Stowe as his honored guest at the White House in 1862, he supposedly greeted her by saying, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started a great big war.”
