it was difficult to escape the implication that their whole
course was illegal. This was the tragic significance of the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.



CHAPTER IX. BOOKS AS ANTI-SLAVERY WEAPONS

Whittier offered up "thanks for the fugitive slave law; for it
gave occasion for 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.'" Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe had been mistress of a station on the Underground Railroad
at Cincinnati, the storm-center of the West, and out of her
experience she has transmitted to the world a knowledge of the
elemental and tragic human experiences of the slaves which would
otherwise have been restricted to a select few. The mistress of a
similar station in eastern Indiana, though she held novel reading
a deadly sin, said: "'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is not a novel, it is a
record of facts. I myself have listened to the same stories." The
reading public in all lands soon became sympathetic participants
in the labors of those who, in defiance of law, were lending a
hand to the aspirants for liberty. At the time of the publication
of the story in book form in March, 1852, America was being
profoundly stirred by the stories of fugitives who had escaped
from European despotism. Mrs. Stowe refers to these incidents in
her question: "When despairing Hungarian fugitives make their
way, against all the search-warrants and authorities of their
lawful governments to America, press and political cabinet ring
with applause and welcome. When despairing African fugitives do
the same thing--it is--what IS it?" Little did she think that
when the eloquence of the Hungarian refugee had been forgotten,