Harriet Beecher Stowe (Essay Date 1856)

SOURCE: Stowe, Harriet Beecher. "Preface." In Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, pp. iii-vi. London: Sampson Low, Son & Co., 1856.

In the following preface to her antislavery novel Dred, Stowe declares that she aims to show the general effect of the institution of slavery on society as well as its corruptive influence on Christianity.

The publishing of Uncle Tom's Cabin disclosed the sorrows of the American slave.

When the existence of such sorrows was disputed, the Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin was published, and to this no answer has ever been returned; a most profound silence has always reigned with regard to that book in quarters whence there was the most clamor with regard to the tale.

The author has never seen or heard of one attempt to disprove or refute a single statement of the Key.

Meanwhile, during the...