Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1888 — The Influence of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin. [ARTICLE]

The Influence of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

St Louis Magazine. In 1852, at the age of 40, an American woman published a book that has since gone the rounds of the civilized world. No book ever printed —not even the Bible—has ever sold as largely as this one. When the historian of the Twentieth century sums up impartially the causes which led to the abolition of African slavery in the United States, he will state that this one book exerted a more powerful influence that all the denunciations of the pulpit, the inflamatory appeals of the orator, the great debates on the floor of Congress, tbe sensational influen<» of the stage, and all other causes combined. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” set the nation thinking, arguing, investigating, and lines of belief and conduct which before existed only vaguely and indefinitely, became drawn henceforth. What’s the matter with a howling mob? It’s all riot.