SOURCE: “Dred: A Tale by the Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.” Tait's Edinburgh Magazine 23 (October 1856): 613-20.

In the following review, the anonymous critic discusses Dred as both a novel and an antislavery polemic.

The bare statistics of slavery never caused so deep an impression on the world as Mrs. Stowe's first narrative—for we can scarcely call that a novel; which was supported by documents in its most thrilling statements. The cabin appears, however, to have been constructed in vain, so far as the population of the United States are concerned. It has made few converts if any, from the neutral party in the republic. The ecclesiastical bodies are still as busy as before with matters of minor importance, with missions to the heathen, and with dancing, and other symptoms of worldly-mindedness, at home; while they bear no testimony of any value against their crime of crimes.

A...