Expanding the Routledge Literary Sourcebooks series to include the polemic that helped to instigate the Civil War, this sourcebook on Uncle Tom's Cabin explains the context and the numerous debates surrounding the novel. Covering a variety of critical viewpoints: abolition and racism, domesticity and Christian charity, this book also contains chapters on Harriet Beecher Stowe's life and development as an author and the work in performance. This introduction will help every student come to a better understanding of this watershed text in American literature.