Uncle Tom's Cabin

American  

noun

1. an antislavery novel (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

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Uncle Tom's Cabin Cultural  

1. (1852) A novel, first published serially, by Harriet Beecher Stowe; it paints a grim picture of life under slavery. The title character is a pious, passive slave, who is eventually beaten to death by the overseer Simon Legree.

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Published shortly before the Civil War, Uncle Tom's Cabin won support for the antislavery cause.

Although Stowe presents Uncle Tom as a virtuous man, the expression “Uncle Tom” is often used as a term of reproach for a subservient black person who tolerates discrimination.

Example Sentences

Montgomery buys home that inspired novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

From Washington Post • Feb. 25, 2022

It fired up Harriet Beecher Stowe to write "Uncle Tom's Cabin," the novel that Lincoln told her had "started this great war."

From Salon • Mar. 4, 2019

Plus, a novel that featured “Amazing Grace” and helped popularize it, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

From Slate • Apr. 19, 2018

Southern critics denounced Uncle Tom’s Cabin as dangerous rubbish, but millions of northerners embraced the book itself and the traveling stage versions that soon crisscrossed their section.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

The serial was so popular, it was later published as the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the greatest publishing sensation of the nineteenth century.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock