{"product_id":"uncle-toms-cabin-isbn-9780140390032","title":"Uncle Tom's Cabin","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe novel that changed the course of American history\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePublished in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel was a powerful indictment of slavery in America. Describing the many trials and eventual escape to freedom of the long-suffering, good-hearted slave Uncle Tom, it aimed to show how Christian love can overcome any human cruelty. \u003ci\u003eUncle Tom’s Cabin\u003c\/i\u003e has remained controversial to this day, seen as either a vital milestone in the anti-slavery cause or as a patronising stereotype of African-Americans, yet it played a crucial role in the eventual abolition of slavery and remains one of the most important American novels ever written.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.\"Uncle Tom's Cabin is the most powerful and enduring work of art ever written about American slavery.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Alfred Kazin\u003cb\u003eHarriet Beecher Stowe\u003c\/b\u003e (1811-1896) was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, daughter of the Reverend Lyman Beecher of the local Congregational Church. In 1832, the family moved to Cincinnati, where Harriet married Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor at the seminary, in 1836. The border town of Cincinnati was alive with abolitionist conflict and there Mrs. Stowe took an active part in community life. She came into contact with fugitive slaves, and learned from friends and from personal visits what life was like for the Negro in the South. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, and that same year Harriet’s sister-in-law urged the author to put her feelings about the evils of slavery into words. \u003ci\u003eUncle Tom’s Cabin\u003c\/i\u003e was first published serially during 1851-52 in The National Era, and in book form in 1852. In one year more than 300,000 copies of the novel were sold. Mrs. Stowe continued to write, publishing eleven other novels and numerous articles before her death at the age of eighty-five in Hartford, Connecticut.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnn Douglas\u003c\/b\u003e teaches English at Columbia University. Her books include \u003ci\u003eTerrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Feminization of American Culture\u003c\/i\u003e.Late in the afternoon of a chilly day in February, two gentlemen were sitting alone\u003cbr\u003e                    over their wine, in a well-furnished dining parlor, in the town of P—, in Kentucky.\u003cbr\u003e                    There were no servants present, and the gentlemen, with chairs closely\u003cbr\u003e                    approaching, seemed to be discussing some subject with great earnestness. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    For convenience sake, we have said, hitherto, two gentlemen. One of the parties,\u003cbr\u003e                    however, when critically examined, did not seem, strictly speaking, to come under\u003cbr\u003e                    the species. He was a short, thick-set man, with coarse, commonplace features, and\u003cbr\u003e                    that swaggering air of pretension which marks a low man who is trying to elbow his\u003cbr\u003e                    way upward in the world. He was much over-dressed, in a gaudy vest of many\u003cbr\u003e                    colors, a blue neckerchief, bedropped gayly with yellow spots, and arranged with a\u003cbr\u003e                    flaunting tie, quite in keeping with the general air of the man. His hands, large and\u003cbr\u003e                    coarse, were plentifully bedecked with rings; and he wore a heavy gold\u003cbr\u003e                    watch-chain, with a bundle of seals of portentous size, and a great variety of colors,\u003cbr\u003e                    attached to it,—which, in the ardor of conversation, he was in the habit of\u003cbr\u003e                    flourishing and jingling with evident satisfaction. His conversation was in free and\u003cbr\u003e                    easy defiance of Murray's Grammar, and was garnished at convenient intervals with\u003cbr\u003e                    various profane expressions, which not even the desire to be graphic in our account\u003cbr\u003e                    shall induce us to transcribe. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    His companion, Mr. Shelby, had the appearance of a gentleman; and the\u003cbr\u003e                    arrangements of the house, and the general air of the housekeeping, indicated easy,\u003cbr\u003e                    and even opulent circumstances. As we before stated, the two were in the midst of\u003cbr\u003e                    an earnest conversation. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    'That is the way I should arrange the matter,' said Mr. Shelby. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    'I can't make trade that way—I positively can't, Mr. Shelby,' said the other, holding\u003cbr\u003e                    up a glass of wine between his eye and the light. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    'Why, the fact is, Haley, Tom is an uncommon fellow; he is certainly worth that sum\u003cbr\u003e                    anywhere—steady, honest, capable, manages my whole farm like a clock.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    'You mean honest, as niggers go,' said Haley, helping himself to a glass of brandy. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    'No; I mean, really, Tom is a good, steady, sensible, pious fellow. He got religion at\u003cbr\u003e                    a camp-meeting, four years ago; and I believe he really did get it. I've trusted him,\u003cbr\u003e                    since then, with everything I have,—money, house, horses,—and let him come and\u003cbr\u003e                    go round the country; and I always found him true and square in everything.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    'Some folks don't believe there is pious niggers, Shelby,' said Haley, with a candid\u003cbr\u003e                    flourish of his hand, 'but I do. I had a fellow, now, in this yer last lot I took to\u003cbr\u003e                    Orleans—'twas as good as a meetin', now, really, to hear that critter pray; and he was\u003cbr\u003e                    quite gentle and quiet like. He fetched me a good sum, too, for I bought him cheap\u003cbr\u003e                    of a man that was 'bliged to sell out; so I realized six hundred on him. Yes, I consider\u003cbr\u003e                    religion a valeyable thing in a nigger, when it's the genuine article, and no mistake.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    'Well, Tom's got the real article, if ever a fellow had,' rejoined the other. 'Why, last\u003cbr\u003e                    fall, I let him go to Cincinnati alone, to do business for me, and bring home five\u003cbr\u003e                    hundred dollars. 'Tom,' says I to him, 'I trust you, because I think you're a\u003cbr\u003e                    Christian—'I know you wouldn't cheat.' Tom comes back, sure enough; I knew he\u003cbr\u003e                    would. Some low fellows, they say, said to him—'Tom, why don't you make tracks\u003cbr\u003e                    for Canada?' 'Ah, master trusted me, and I couldn't'—they told me about it. I am sorry\u003cbr\u003e                    to part with Tom, I must say. You ought to let him cover the whole balance of the\u003cbr\u003e                    debt; and you would, Haley, if you had any conscience.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    'Well, I've got just as much conscience as any man in business can afford to\u003cbr\u003e                    keep,—just a little, you know, to swear by, as 'twere,' said the trader, jocularly; 'and\u003cbr\u003e                    then, I'm ready to do anything in reason to 'blige friends; but this yer, you see, is a\u003cbr\u003e                    leetle too hard on a fellow—a leetle too hard.' The trader sighed contemplatively, and\u003cbr\u003e                    poured out some more brandy. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    'Well, then, Haley, how will you trade?' said Mr. Shelby, after an uneasy interval of\u003cbr\u003e                    silence. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    'Well, haven't you a boy or gal that you could throw in with Tom?'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    'Hum!—none that I could well spare; to tell the truth, it's only hard necessity makes\u003cbr\u003e                    me willing to sell at all. I don't like parting with any of my hands, that's a fact.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                    Here the door opened, and a small quadroon boy, between four and five years of\u003cbr\u003e                    age, entered the room. There was something in his appearance remarkably beautiful\u003cbr\u003e                    and engaging. His black hair, fine as floss silk, hung in glossy curls about his\u003cbr\u003e                    round, dimpled face, while a pair of large dark eyes, full of fire and softness, looked\u003cbr\u003e                    out from beneath the rich, long lashes, as he peered curiously into the apartment. A\u003cbr\u003e                    gay robe of scarlet and yellow plaid, carefully made and neatly fitted, set off to\u003cbr\u003e                    advantage the dark and rich style of his beauty; and a certain comic air of\u003cbr\u003e                    assurance, blended with bashfulness, showed that he had been not unused to\u003cbr\u003e                    being petted and noticed by his master.","brand":"Penguin Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302376788197,"sku":"NP9780140390032","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780140390032.jpg?v=1767743199","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/uncle-toms-cabin-isbn-9780140390032","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}