Slavery was a contentious issue in the United States long before Harriet Beecher Stowe started writing her popular 1852 serial novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. To wit, when Benjamin Franklin became president of the Philadelphia Abolition Society in 1787, some of America's founding fathers were so concerned that slavery would be outlawed they insisted that clauses protecting their right to own slaves be inserted into the U.S. constitution. As too often happens an invidious issue was passed down to future generations; in this case the eventual culmination is known as the Civil War.

The impact of Stowe's novel was indeed far-reaching. The book was the number two work of fiction in its day, and more importantly it helped turn public opinion against slavery while simultaneously deepening the ideological divide between the liberal north and the conservative south.