Q 01/05

Which famous author was Harriet Beecher Stowe's neighbour in Hartford's Nook Farm district?

A) Mark Twain

B) Herman Melville

C) Walt Whitman

D) Henry James

Answer · why

A) Mark Twain

Mark Twain built his Hartford house near Stowe's in 1874, but money troubles forced him to close it and move his family to Europe in 1891.

Q 02/05

Why could British publishers reprint Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852 without paying Stowe?

A) No international copyright law

B) It had never been copyrighted

C) She had sold the British rights

D) Her publisher Jewett had gone bust

Answer · why

A) No international copyright law

No international copyright law protected American books abroad, so for her next novel, Dred, Stowe went to England in 1856 to arrange a British editio...

Q 03/05

What is the subtitle of Uncle Tom's Cabin?

A) Life Among the Lowly

B) Days of Bondage

C) Scenes of Slavery

D) A Tale of the South

Answer · why

A) Life Among the Lowly

Life Among the Lowly was the subtitle; Stowe began the book after her sister-in-law wrote urging her to show what an accursed thing slavery is.

Q 04/05

The passage of which law prompted Stowe to write Uncle Tom's Cabin?

A) The Missouri Compromise

B) The Kansas-Nebraska Act

C) The Fugitive Slave Act

D) The Northwest Ordinance

Answer · why

C) The Fugitive Slave Act

The Fugitive Slave Act commanded ordinary citizens to help catch people fleeing slavery, and anyone who sheltered a fugitive faced up to a $1,000 fine...

Q 05/05

In which abolitionist newspaper was Uncle Tom's Cabin first published in instalments?

A) The National Era

B) The Liberator

C) The Emancipator

D) The Anti-Slavery Standard

Answer · why

A) The National Era

The National Era signed up a story Stowe expected to fill three or four instalments, but Uncle Tom's Cabin ran to more than 40 before it ended.