reach the Canadian boundary. Now Mrs. Stowe's
spirit burned within her. "I wish," she writes at this period, "some
Martin Luther would arise to set this community right."

It was then she conceived the idea of writing "Uncle Tom's Cabin." In the
month of February, 1851, while attending communion service in the college
church at Brunswick, the scene of the death of Uncle Tom passed before
her mind like the unfolding of a vision. When she returned home she
immediately wrote down the mental picture she had seen. Then she gathered
her children around her and read what she had written. Two of them broke
into violent weeping, the first of many thousands who have wept over
"Uncle Tom's Cabin."

The first chapter was not completed until the following April, and on
June 5 it began to appear in serial form in the "National Era." She had
intended to write a short tale of a few chapters, but as her task
progressed the conviction grew on her that she had been intrusted with a
holy mission. Afterwards she said: "I could not control the story; it
wrote itself." At another time she remarked: "The Lord himself wrote it,
and I was but the humblest of instruments in His hand. To Him alone
should be given all the praise."

Mrs. Stowe received $300 for her serial story! However, scarcely had the
last instalment appeared when a Boston publisher made arrangements to
print it in book form. Within one year it had passed through 120
editions, and four months after the book was off the press the author had
received $10,000 in royalties. Almost in a day Mrs. Stowe had become one
of the most famous women in the world, and the specter of poverty had
been banished forever. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" exerted a profound influence
not only over the American people, but its fame spread to Europe. The
year following its publication Jenny Lind came to America. Asked to
contribute to a fund Mrs. Stowe was raising for the purpose of purchasing
the freedom of a slave family, the "Swedish Nightingale" gladly
responded, also writing a letter to Mrs. Stowe in the following prophetic
vein: "I have the feeling about 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' that great changes
will take place by and by, from the impression people receive from it,
and that the writer of that book can fall asleep today or tomorrow with
the bright, sweet consciousness of having been a strong means in the
Creator's hand of having accomplished essential good."

Tributes like this came to Mrs. Stowe from the grea