University of Virginia Library

Mrs. Stowe's Income from the Serial Version of Uncle Tom's Cabin
by
Susan Geary

A discrepancy exists among the printed sources regarding the amount of money Mrs. Stowe was paid for the serial version of Uncle Tom's Cabin. While it is a small matter, it may be worthwhile to clear it up if, in the process, we can also shed some light on the conditions of authorship in the early 1850's. The most commonly cited sum said to have been paid for the serial, which ran in the National Era from June 5, 1851, to April 1, 1852, is $300.[1] However, in A History of American Magazines, 1850-1865, Frank Luther Mott cites $400 as the amount she was paid by Gamaliel Bailey for Uncle Tom's Cabin.[2] There is some reason for believing that Mott's is the correct figure, even though the $300 one comes from a presumably reliable source—the authorized biography of Mrs. Stowe, written by her son, and for which she selected the material to be included. In theory, at least, this biography ought to contain "inside" information. But the author does not reveal his source and merely states, "For the story as a serial the author received $300" (Stowe, p. 158).

The source of Mott's figure is documented. It came from an article on Bailey that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly for 1866. The article contains a long excerpt from a letter written by Bailey to a friend in 1853—when his memory was still fresh—in which he states unequivocally that he paid Mrs. Stowe the higher sum for the novel, although it was paid out in three installments: $100, $200 and $100. These payments were made at irregular intervals because neither Bailey nor Mrs. Stowe realized that she was going to turn out a novel, let alone such a long one. Bailey began by sending her $100 at the beginning of 1851 with instructions to write "'as much as she pleased, what she pleased, and when she pleased.'"[3] Her response to him indicates that she was thinking in terms of a story that would run through only three or four numbers of the Era.[4]

When it became apparent that the story was going to go on indefinitely,

and when Bailey discovered what it was doing for the circulation of the Era, he wrote to her again saying that although he had not contracted for such a story, nonetheless he felt "'bound to make her another remittance,'" and sent her $200 more. But still she wrote, and when at last Uncle Tom came to an end, he wrote to her once more. His remarks on the occasion of the writing are worth quoting in some detail for the light they shed on her status as a writer and on the relationship between editors and writers in this period: Mrs. Stowe could hardly have found a more agreeable editor than Bailey. Not only did he let her write what, when and as much as she pleased, but he also let her name the price. Clearly her star was already ascending.

That Bailey's account of the matter is correct is substantiated by Mrs. Stowe's answer to him in which she asks for $400 and explains how she arrived at that figure:

Lest Mrs. Stowe appear to be undervaluing her own work here, it should be noted that the Abbotts were probably receiving top dollar for their work. John Abbott was, as Mrs. Stowe asserted, being paid $100 a month for his series of articles on Napoleon which appeared in Harpers' New Monthly Magazine over a space of four years, beginning in 1851. Jacob Abbott was being paid $5 a page in 1851 for his contributions to Harpers', and by April 1852 he was receiving $10 a page.[6] According to Mott (pp. 19-25), no periodical at this time—with very rare exceptions—paid more than this, and most did not pay as much, when they bothered to pay at all.

Mrs. Stowe had been writing long enough to be all too painfully aware of this fact, and in deciding how much to ask for her work she probably took it into account along with the fact that she was still a relatively unknown writer, whereas the Abbotts were at the peak of their popularity. She may also have given heed to Bailey's statement that he had not planned on such an outlay as he had already made, though she did discount his assertion that the advertisement she had gotten from the serialization of her novel ought to be taken into account in fixing upon a fair price. It is also possible that she had $400 in mind as a kind of mark to aim for as a year's income from her writing, for she wrote to her husband upon receipt of the first $100 from Bailey: ". . . I don't want to feel obliged to work as hard every year as I have this. I can earn four hundred dollars a year by writing, but I don't want to feel that I must. . . ." (Fields, p. 132).

Notes