Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom, Topsy, Sambo, Simon Legree, little Eva: their names are American bywords, and all of them are characters in Harriet Beecher Stowe's remarkable novel of the pre-Civil War South. Uncle Tom's Cabin was revolutionary in 1852 for its passionate indictment of slavery and for its presentation of Tom, "a man of humanity," as the first black hero in American fiction. Labeled racist and condescending by some contemporary critics, it remains a shocking,...

Tells the stories of a saint-like slave, a religious woman's courtship in eighteenth-century Newport, R.I., and life in a small Massachusetts town.

Mary Scudder lives with her widowed mother and their boarder, Dr. Hopkins, a Calvinist minister who is dedicated to helping the slaves arriving at Newport. Mary admires Hopkins but is in love with the passionate and sceptical James Marvyn who, hungry for adventure, sets sail for exotic destinations.