The Civil War was caused by a multitude of issues, controversies, and acts of defiance. Harriet Beecher Stowe and her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one reason for the outbreak of war. Stowe lived in Cincinnati with her family when she was 21. There at the banks of the Ohio River, she witnessed slaves being boarded onto small and crowded ships to be sold at the slave market. This and the Fugitive Slave Act, which she called a “nightmare abomination,” inspired her to help put an end to slavery. Stowe had a deep hatred for slavery, but she did not know how she could contribute to the movement to end it. She then realized, with the help of her family, that she could write a book about the brutal truth of slavery. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published
