When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe for the first time, he said, “(So you are) the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” Whether her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, actually started the war is debatable. Something else debatable is whether this is a good book. I’m here to tell you that it is a great book! I read this book about a year ago for a Literature and Composition class. Although it took me a long time to read, I really enjoyed reading this book! This book tells the story of a fictional African-American man who is enslaved in the pre-Civil War US. It narrates his struggles as well as some of his better times. He goes through many masters, some of which are ‘kind’ and others who are total jerks.
This book tells a great story, written in a compelling and captivating way. Although the book was pretty long (over 400 pages), I don’t feel like it dragged very much. I was on the edge of my seat for most of the book, wondering what would come next. This was one of the books for school that I actually enjoyed and didn’t hate reading! Another thing that Stowe does well in this book is make you feel for Tom. She really builds up his character in a way that you come to love him and hate the people who are unkind to him! There are other wonderful characters in this book that she makes you feel for as well!
I honestly think this was a really great book and very well written. I would definitely recommend this book to teens and adults alike. It does show some awful treatment of slaves, so I wouldn’t recommend it to those younger than 10. It is a great book, though, so if you have some time on your hands, please consider reading it! I don’t know if it started the American Civil War, but I think that it may have begun a battle for one of the best historical fiction books that I’ve ever read!