Harriet Beecher Stowe
An item at American Writers Museum
Harriet Beecher Stowe's strong abolitionist views compelled her to write Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). The novel vividly and sympathetically details the pain and suffering caused by slavery-especially the fracturing of families.
The book was a best seller in the North, helping to galvanize the antislavery sentiment that ultimately led to the Civil War. When President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862, he reportedly joked, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!" Uncle Tom's Cabin remains one of the most effective protest novels in American history,
AMERICAN VOICES
An exhibit at American Writers Museum
American writing is distinctive, diverse, and comes in many forms from across the nation. The 100 authors featured here represent the evolution of American writing. Learn more about each writer on the timeline by turning the panels below their portraits. Explore centuries of writing by pulling, turning, and touching the interactive elements on the counter.
This is not meant to be a list of the greatest or most influential writers. Instead, we present authors and works as part of the American story as it grows and changes. Taken together, this rich literary heritage reflects America in all of its complexity: its energy, hope, conflict, disillusionment, and creativity.