University of Virginia Library

I wrote the following letter after reading several leading articles in the Times newspaper, at the time of the great sensation occasioned by Mrs. Beecher Stowe’s novel of ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ and after the Anti-Slavery Protest which that book induced the women of England to address to those of America, on the subject of the condition of the slaves in the southern states.

My dear E——. I have read the articles in the Times to which you refer, on the subject of the inaccuracy of Mrs. Beecher Stowe’s book as a picture of slavery in America, and have ascertained who they were written by. Having done so, I do not think it worth while to send my letter for insertion, because, as that is the tone deliberately taken upon the subject by that paper, my counter statement would not, I imagine, be admitted into its columns. I enclose it to you, as I should like you to see how far from true, according to my experience, the statements of the ‘Times’ Correspondent’ are. It is impossible of course to know why it erects itself into an advocate for slavery; and the most charitable conjecture I can form upon the subject is, that the Stafford House demonstration may have been thought likely to wound the sensitive national views of America upon this subject; and the statement put forward by the Times, contradicting Mrs. Stowe’s picture, may be intended to soothe their irritation at the philanthropic zeal of our lady abolitionists.

Believe me, dear E——,

Yours always truly,

F.A.K.