's, "As a Slave and As a Freeman"; "Autobiography of a Fugitive
Negro," by the Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward; "Twenty-two Years a Slave,
and Forty Years a Freeman," by the Rev. Austin Stewart; "Narrative of
Solomon Northup," "Walker's Appeal,"--all by eminent Negroes, exposed
the true character of slavery, informed the public mind, stimulated
healthy thought, and touched the heart of two continents with a
sympathy almost divine.

But the uncounted millions of anti-slavery tracts, pamphlets,
journals, and addresses of the entire period of agitation were little
more than a paper wad compared with the solid shot "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
was to slavery. Written in vigorous English, in scintillating,
perspicuous style; adorned with gorgeous imagery, bristling with
living "_facts_", going to the lowest depths, mounting to the greatest
altitudes, moving with panoramic grandeur, picturing humanity forlorn
and outraged; giving forth the shrillest, most _despairing_ cries of
the afflicted, and the sublimest strains of Christian faith; the
struggle of innocent, defenceless womanhood, the subdued sorrow of
chattel-babyhood, the yearnings of fettered manhood, and the piteous
sobs of helpless old age,--made Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle
Tom's Cabin" the magnifying wonder of enlightened Christendom! It
pleaded the cause of the slave in twenty different languages; it
engrossed the thought of philosophers, and touched the heart of youth
with a strange pity for the slave. It covered audiences with the
sunlight of laughter, wrapt them in sorrow, and veiled them in tears.
It illustrated the power of the Gospel of Love, the gentleness of
Negro character, and the powers and possibilities of the race. It was
God's message to a people who had refused to listen to his
anti-slavery prophets and priests; and its sad, weird, and
heart-touching descriptions and dialogues restored the milk of human
kindness to a million hearts that had grown callous in an age of
self-seeking and robbery of the poor.

In a political and sectional sense, the "Impending Crisis," by Helper,
exerted a wide influence for good. It was read by merchants and
politicians.

Diverse and manifold as were the methods of the friends of universal
freedom, and sometimes apparently conflicting, under God no honest
effort to rid the Negro and the country of the curse of slavery was
lost. All these agencies, running along different lines, converged at
a common centre, and aimed at a c