Uncle Tom's Cabin

The novel was inspired by the life and memoir of Josiah Henson, a formerly enslaved man who escaped to freedom and became an abolitionist leader. Stowe also drew upon various first-person narratives and her own observations of the realities of slavery to construct the story.

Stowe published A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1853 to provide the original facts and documentation that supported the depictions of slavery in her novel, specifically in response to critics who questioned the accuracy of her writing.