Playbill for the 73rd Performance of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" at the Boston Museum, January 22, 1853

Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin about the trials of an enslaved black family seeking freedom became an instant best-seller when first published in 1852. Stage plays of the novel appeared soon after and some versions ran for decades. These productions varied in dramatic and literary quality. The book and plays stoked the fires of the anti-slavery movement before the Civil War.