Harriet Beecher Stowe - Uncle Tom's Cabin (version 2)

This is a deeply moving novel centered around the lives of Uncle Tom and others and which very effectively portrays the suffering caused by the practice of slavery in the American South, prior to and during the time of the Civil War.

It also provides a fascinating character study of a wide variety of people, including various slave owners, families of slave owners, traders, bystanders, the slaves themselves, and participants in the underground railroad. On one hand there is the ignorance, false mindsets, indifference and even blatant cruelty and abuse on the part of some, and on the other hand there is great love and compassion and sacrifice on the part of others. This was the best-selling novel of the 19th Century and is said to have helped fuel the cause of the abolitionists. (Summary by Larraine Paquette and Wikipedia)