THE JOHN HARVARD LIBRARY The John Harvard Library, founded in 1959, publishes essential American writings, including novels, poetry, memoirs, criti- cism, and works of social and political history, representing all periods, from the beginning of settlement in America to the twenty-ªrst century. The purpose of The John Harvard Library is to make these works available to scholars and general readers in affordable, authoritative editions. H A R R I E T B E E C H E R S T O W E U N C L E T O M ’ S C A B I N O R , L I F E A M O N G T H E L O W LY INTRODUCTION BY DAVID BROMWICH j o h n h a r v a r d l i b r a r y THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, Eng land 2009 Copyright © 2009 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College all rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-0-674-03407-5 Contents Introduction by David Bromwich ix Note on the Text xxvii Chronology of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Life xxix UNCLE TOM’S CABIN OR, LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY Preface 1 I In Which the Reader Is Introduced to a Man of Humanity 5 II The Mother 18 III The Husband and Father 23 IV An Evening in Uncle Tom’s Cabin 30 vi CONTENTS V Showing the Feelings of Living Property on Changing Owners 45 VI Discovery 56 VII The Mother’s Struggle 68 VIII Eliza’s Escape 85 IX In Which It Appears That a Senator Is But a Man 104 X The Property Is Carried Off 124 XI In Which Property Gets into an Improper State of Mind 137 XII Select Incident of Lawful Trade 154 XIII The Quaker Settlement 175 XIV Evangeline 187 XV Of Tom’s New Master, and Various Other Matters 200 XVI Tom’s Mistress and Her Opinions 220 XVII The Freeman’s Defence 244 XVIII Miss Ophelia’s Experiences and Opinions 265 XIX Miss Ophelia’s Experiences and Opinions, Continued 285 XX Topsy 309 CONTENTS vii XXI Kentuck 328 XXII “The Grass Withereth—The Flower Fadeth” 335 XXIII Henrique 345 XXIV Foreshadowings 355 XXV The Little Evangelist 363 XXVI Death 370 XXVII “This Is the Last of Earth” 387 XXVIII Re union 397 XXIX The Unprotected 416 XXX The Slave Warehouse 426 XXXI The Middle Passage 439 XXXII Dark Places 447 XXXIII Cassy 458 XXXIV The Quadroon’s Story 468 XXXV The Tokens 481 XXXVI Emmeline and Cassy 489 XXXVII Liberty 498 XXXVIII The Victory 506 XXXIX The Stratagem 519 viii CONTENTS XL The Martyr 532 XLI The Young Master 541 XLII An Authentic Ghost Story 549 XLIII Results 558 XLIV The Liberator 568 XLV Concluding Remarks 573 Selected Bibliography 585 Introduction The death of Uncle Tom, the good husband and gentle slave who epitomizes the Christian virtues of charity and self-sac ri fice, came to Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1851 in a sudden “vision” that inspired the writing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin over many months. Stowe was thirty- nine and known already as a gifted observer. She had recently wit- nessed the death of her youngest child, “the most beautiful and most loved” of seven children, as she described him; there were “circum- stances,” she said, “about his death of such peculiar bitterness” that for the first time she was made to understand the feelings of a slave mother from whom a child at any moment could be snatched away. She believed that her private tragedy was the incitement for the book, but it had a longer and more public background. Stowe came from a family that embodied the New Eng land con- science at its unappeasable height. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was ix