March 20, 1852

Uncle Tom's Cabin forever changed America for better and, arguably, for worse.

Uncle Tom's cabin: or Life among the lowly, via Wikimedia Commons

171 years ago today, the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published. It was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe because she felt a call to action after the fugitive slave laws passed in 1850. These laws made Northerners part of a slave catching system whether they wanted to be a part of that ordea…