Harriet Beecher Stowe has been publishing fictional…

Harriet Beecher Stowe has been publishing fictional sketches under the title Uncle Tom's Cabin or Life Among the Lowly in the Cincinnati abolitionist newspaper, The National Era.

She publishes her sketches as a two-volume book after prompting from readers and her husband, who believes in her story's power to change the mind.

Within a week of its release in the U.S. on March 20, 1852, her book sells a phenomenal ten thousand copies, and three hundred thousand the first year; sales are even higher in Britain.

Stowe's book has an astounding effect on the northern states of America.

Thousands more flock to the abolitionist side.

However, the rift dividing north and south deepens.

Southerners denies that the book is a true account of southern life, and takes it as an accusation.

Southern states even resort to such severe measures as to ban the book and arrest anyone in possession of it.