Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

This classic novel is an active piece of abolitionist literature. It's full of religion, suffering, hope, terror, joy.... and it is beautiful.

We meet some slaves who live in Kentucky, close to the border of Ohio, on the estate of a benevolent master....who finds himself in difficult financial straits and decides to sell two of them. We follow these two for the next several years. We meet their fellow slaves and we follow them through their experiences--good and horribly bad.

Can there be any good endings in a book about slavery? In this book Harriet Beecher Stowe makes even the awful parts seem better by the nobility of her characters and their integrity even in the midst of their suffering. I felt uplifted by the dignity of Uncle Tom. He touched for good every one that he encountered.

Still, it is a book meant to make a strong statement against slavery and in defense of the natural intelligence and competence of these people who were stolen from Africa--and it really does.

I was surprised at how much I liked the book. I highly recommend it to all ages.