Uncle Tom's Cabin was originally written as a newspaper Series in 1851 by Harriet Beecher Stowe it was published again as a book the following year so why was this book so popular over the next few videos we're going to take a look at Uncle Tom's Cabin what it is and why it had such a huge impact on the world in this episode we're gonna take a look at a summary of the novel itself the Fugitive Slave Law had just been passed and so the debate around slavery was at its strongest around this time this story was written to expose the horrors of slavery it follows two slaves Uncle Tom of course and Eliza Harris both their favorites of their master and mistress both had families and both were faced with the choice to run away or not Uncle Tom is the head slave on the Shelby Plantation and his wife is the head cook they have two young sons and one baby girl they became Christians about four years earlier at a camp and Mr Shelby their master has trusted them with everything on the house ever since Eliza Harris is the personal Maid of Emily Shelby the Master's wife she's about 25 years old and is married to a man named George Shelby who works at a factory nearby they have a son named Harry who is about four or five years old the Shelbys have a son as well who's 13 years old his name is also George but we'll call him young George for now he spends a lot of his time at Uncle Tom's Cabin playing with the kids teaching Tom how to read and sometimes joining them for their weekly church meeting young George is a strong Christian raised by his mother to treat slaves well he promised Tom that he would free all the slaves and hire them again as servants instead but unknown to young George Orr's mother Mr Shelby is in a lot of debt to a man named Haley who's a slave trader Shelby has to either sell the house and give up all of his slaves to another master or just sell a few of his slaves and save the house Uncle Tom and Eliza's son Harry are chosen to be sold Eliza overhears what's going on and decides that the only way to protect her family is to run away with her son so she takes him out of the house quickly and goes to Uncle Tom's Cabin to warn him but Toms decides to stay believing that if he ran away too the debt wouldn't be settled and his family would probably be sold anyway so it's here that Eliza and Tom's path split Eliza runs away giving up her life in order to save her son at his freedom Tom gives up his freedom in order to save his family's life the next morning Haley comes to collect his slaves but finds that Eliza and Harry are missing so he chases after them but with the help of Mrs Shelby and a few of the other slaves doesn't reach Eliza until she is about to cross the Ohio River desperate to get away Eliza jumps onto the half Frozen River leaping from block of ice to block of ice until she reaches the other side leaving a trail of blood from her Frozen feet Haley can do nothing but stand there and watch on this other side of the bank if this is sounding a little familiar it's based off an actual story pulled out of History by Harriet Beecher Stowe our very first video was on this one if you want to check it out we go now to Tom Haley sends others after Eliza and takes Tom further south on a Riverboat here he meets a young girl named Eva who actually sees him as a person unlike everybody else on the boat during their trip Tom saves Eva from drowning and at her asking her father decides to buy Tom off of Haley meanwhile Eliza is making her way to Canada through the Underground Railroad abolitionists find her husband as well who's also on the run and they're reunited they make it to Canada in a few weeks Tom on the other hand is still a slave but he's again promised that he'd be freed but Eva and her father die and Tom is sold again this time to a man named Simon Legree who's a hard master and beats Tom simply because he's a Christian Cassie one of the other slaves drugs Legree and tells Tom to kill him but Tom decides that they should run away instead Cassie agrees but Tom has been beaten quite a lot and he would only slow them down so he tells Cassie to run with another slave when Legree wakes up he gets his men to be Tom even more thinking that Tom knows where Cassie is but Tom doesn't give in at around this time young George shows up wanting to buy Tom back George had fulfilled his promise to Tom's Family freeing them and the rest of the slaves on the plantation but it's too late for Tom he's dying of his wounds but he is satisfied knowing that his family could be safe and free because of his sacrifice we go back again to Eliza she her husband and their son have been living free in Canada for a couple of years but then something unexpected happens Eliza's mother also escaped slavery and joins the Harris family in Freedom her name is Cassie yeah that's right she is the one that Tom convinced to run two slaves one who ran from slavery and the other who endured it both received kindness both endured hardship this is what Harriet Beecher Stowe wanted to show her readers slavery is an evil and is unkind to all involved but we can do something about it why was this novel so popular it was fictional but not completely untrue Harriet Beecher Stowe based all of her stories off of true things that happened to real people and you can click on this video where we do a complete analysis of all the stories fictional and their Origins