"'It's a free country, sir; the man's mine, and I do what I please with him.'... So spoke Mr. Haley... and now, scorning all by-ways, he openly purchased his human chattels in the public market of New Orleans." — Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852
The publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin contributed to sectional tension primarily because it:
- A
Led directly to the formation of the Republican Party that same year
- B
Prompted Britain to threaten intervention against the South
- Ccheck_circle
Hardened Northern public opinion against slavery while provoking Southern denunciations
- D
Convinced Congress to repeal the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
Explanation
The novel's emotional power radicalized Northern opinion while Southerners attacked it as slanderous propaganda, deepening the cultural divide that preceded the Republican Party's emergence in 1854.