In Uncle Toms Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe created Americas first black literary hero as well as the nations antecedent protest novel. The novels vast influence on attitudes towards African American slavery was considered an incitation towards the American Civil War conjointly its powerful antislavery message resonated with readers around the world at its time of publication.With unashamed sentimentality and expressions of faith Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Toms Cabin tells the story of the lives of African American slaves from a Kentucky plantation The masters maid Eliza her son Henry and of course Uncle Tom the righteous and kind protagonist at the center of the book. When Arthur Selby a Kentucky slaveowner decides to sell his slaves due to dire financial turns Eliza runs away with her son and Tom is sold to a slave trader named Haley.