本書《湯姆叔叔的小屋》又名《黑奴籲天錄》,寫的是十九世紀美國黑奴的血與淚。善良、正直的湯姆叔叔,擁有一間小木屋和美滿的家庭,但在奴隸制度下,卻淪為商品般的黑奴,任由主人買賣。所幸他有虔誠的信仰,所以內心始終非常平靜。他並把信仰傳達給其他受苦的黑奴,使他們得以度過悲慘的生活。
Uncle Tom, Topsy, Sambo, Simon Legree, little Eva: their names are American bywords, and all of them are characters in Harriet Beecher Stowe's remarkable novel of the pre-Civil War South. Uncle Tom's Cabin was revolutionary in 1852 for its passionate indictment of slavery and for its presentation of Tom, "a man of humanity," as the first black hero in American fiction. Labeled racist and condescending by some contemporary critics, it remains a shocking, controversial, and powerful work -- exposing the attitudes of white nineteenth-century society toward "the peculiar institution" and documenting, in heartrending detail, the tragic breakup of black Kentucky families "sold down the river." An immediate international sensation, Uncle Tom's Cabin sold 300,000 copies in the first year, was translated into thirty-seven languages, and has never gone out of print: its political impact was immense, its emotional influence immeasurable.