A REPRINT OF AN ARTICLE ON "UNCLE TOM'S CABIN," OF WHICH A PORTION WAS INSERTED IN THE 206TH NUMBER OF THE “EDINBURGH REVIEW ; PREFACE. THE following article was partially published in the "Edinburgh Review," during my absence from Europe. Considerable portions of the matter contained in the proofs, as I finally settled them, were omitted. It is now reprinted unmutilated, indeed verbatim, from the revise as it left my hands. On re-perusal I have found nothing to soften or to retrench, though I could add and strengthen much. I have also reprinted the speech of Mr. Sumner in the Senate of the United States, on the 19th and 20th of May, 1856, and a brief notice of the frightful scenes which followed it. The moral and intellectual character of Mr. Sumner has long been admired by Europe. To sympathy for his courage is now added sympathy for his calamity. The result of the frightful scenes now passing in the United States must be much influenced by the conduct of the coloured race. The following pages may afford some materials for conjecturing what that conduct will be. SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.* THE sale of "Uncle Tom's Cabin " is the most marvellous literary phenomenon that the world has witnessed. It came out as a sort of feuilleton in the "National Era," a Washington paper. The death of Uncle Tom was the first portion published, indeed the first that was written. It appeared in the summer of 1851, and excited so much attention, that Mrs. Stowe added a beginning and middle to her end, by composing and printing from week to week the story as we now have it, until it was concluded in March, 1852. It *1. Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life among the Lowly. By HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. London: 1853. 2. A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. By HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. London: 1853. 3. Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands. By Mrs. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. London: 1854. 4. Speech of the Honourable Charles Sumner on his Motion to Repeal the Fugitive Slave Bill in the Senate of the United States. Aug. 26. 1852. Washington: 1852. B |