Harriet Beecher Stowe

A Key to Uncle Tom s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe

A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin is a book by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was published to document the veracity of the depiction of slavery in Stowe's anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). First published in 1853 by Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, the book also provides insights into Stowe's own views on slavery. After the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Southerners accused Stowe of misrepresenting slavery. In order to show that she had neither lied about slavery nor exaggerated the plight of enslaved people, she compiled A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. The book was subtitled "Presenting the Original Facts and Documents upon Which the Story Is Founded, Together with Corroborative Statements Verifying the Truth of the Work. The reaction of Stowe's contemporaries to A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin was very similar to the reaction to Uncle Tom's Cabin, with both very positive and very negative reviews. The responses of abolitionists and Northerners in general were among the positive, lauding the proof of the evils of slavery and the confirmation of the truth of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The great interest in Uncle Tom's Cabin in England also transferred to the Key. One English review of the 1853 publication called it a "marvelous book, more so if possible than Uncle Tom's Cabin itself". This same review also commends Stowe's self-control and character. This impression of Stowe and the reception of the book is much different than the reaction to the Key in the South.