President Lincoln allegedly said about Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin that it was "the book that started this great war." It's unlikely he ever said these words, but there's an element of truth to them all the same, for Uncle Tom's Cabin was hugely influential in strengthening the cause of abolitionism. In detailing the horrors of slavery, Stowe helped to convince many Americans that there could be no compromise with the South over the institution's continued existence.
Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act (1887) and the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) in response to "(3) monopolistic practices that were harmful to <span>small businesses".</span>
