Question

Which book is the BEST example of how growing sectional differences between the North and South were expressed in the literature of the Antebellum period?

Answer 1

Uncle Tom's cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Answer 2

Uncle Tom's Cabin

During the 1850s, when the United States experienced the dawn of the Civil War, slavery was the main reason for the conflicts between the northern states and the southern states.

The confrontations increased when in 1850 the Law of the Fugitive Slave was proclaimed, under which all the blacks were judged without the recognition of any of the rights of the free people and the citizens were prohibited to rescue or to help a fugitive slave. This was the delicate situation of the country when in 1852 The Uncle Tom's Cabin was published, a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that denounced the injustices committed with slaves and pointed out the need for a reform of the federal law.

The book has many characters and tells the story of more than one, but the main plot is that concerning Tom, a domestic slave whose master is forced to sell to a dealer to pay off their debts. From this moment he is separated from his owners, his wife and children, and sent to the South, the sorrows and difficulties occur almost endlessly in the life of Tom, who supports everything thanks to his kindness and his unbreakable faith.