Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe opened the eyes of millions of people around the world. The book described the brutal lives of black slaves. It sold millions of copies and was given the title "The Greatest Book of the Age". (p. 616) It was commented that this book had helped "lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman, and is widely considered one of the reasons for the Civil War. Langston Hughes calls this book a "moral rallying cry for freedom." The characters in his book argued about the causes of slavery, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the future of freed people, individualism, and racism. The Civil War arose from a combination of causes that included regional conflicts between Southern and Northern states, economic forces, and humanitarian concerns for the well-being of enslaved people. The four-year war pitted parts of the country against each other and nearly abolished the United States of America. It is no wonder why when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe, he replied that she was “the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war” and I would agree with this statement of his. Whether this is true or not, the blast highlights the public connection between Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Civil War. In the novel, Harriet Beecher Stowe features a house slave, Eliza, who was promised that her son would not be sold, however, when the Bad economic conditions had hit her slave owners, who did not keep their promise to keep the son of Eliza. One night she overheard them planning to sell her son, so Eliza ran away to help her son. “Eliza retreated in despair across the river right into the darkness of twilight. The gray evening fog, slowly rising from the river, enveloped... middle of paper... the Americans did something and it sparked the Civil War. This is why I agree with Abraham Lincoln's comment about Harriet Beecher Stowe that she was "the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." Works Cited • Impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Slavery, and the Civil War. (n.d.). The national and international impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Retrieved May 5, 2014, from https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org• Editorial team. (2008, November 11). Uncle Tom's Cabin. Shmoop.com. Retrieved May 9, 2014, from http://www.shmoop.com/uncle-toms-cabin/• Stowe, H. B., & Kazin, A. (1981). Uncle Tom's Cabin. Toronto: Bantam.• Tindall, G. B., & Shi, D. E. (2013). America: A Narrative History (9th ed.). New York: WW Norton & Co.• Uncle Tom's Cabin. (2014, August 5). Wikipedia. Retrieved May 8, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom's_Cabin