The novel sold 300,000 copies within three months and was so widely read that when President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862, he reportedly said, “So this is the little lady who made this big war.”

While living in Cincinnati, Stowe encountered fugitive slaves and the Underground Railroad, which was a network of people offering shelter and aid to escaped slaves from the South. Later, she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in reaction to recently tightened fugitive slave laws. The book had a major influence on the way the American public viewed slavery. It also strengthened the conflict between the Northern and Southern United States. In 1863, when Lincoln announced the end of slavery, she danced in the streets.