I remember distinctly saying in one of them, 'Now, Hattie, if I
could use a pen as you can, I would write something that would make
this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is.' . . . When
we lived in Boston your mother often visited us. . . . Several numbers
of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' were written in your Uncle Edward's study at
these times, and read to us from the manuscripts."
A member of Mrs. Stowe's family well remembers the scene in the little
parlor in Brunswick when the letter alluded to was received. Mrs.
Stowe herself read it aloud to the assembled family, and when she came
to the passage, "I would write something that would make this whole
nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is," Mrs. Stowe rose up
from her chair, crushing the letter in her hand, and with an
expression on her face that stamped itself on the mind of her child,
said: "I will write something. I will if I live."
This was the origin of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and Professor Cairnes has
well said in his admirable work, "The Slave Power," "The Fugitive
Slave Law has been to the slave power a questionable gain. Among its
first-fruits was 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.'"
The purpose of writing a story that should make the whole nation feel
that slavery was an accursed thing was not immediately carried out. In
December, 1850, Mrs. Stowe writes: "Tell sister Katy I thank her for
her letter and will answer it.
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