Editing Uncle Tom (section)

==Inspiration==
[[File:Uncle Tom and Eva, Staffordshire, England, 1855-1860, glazed and painted ceramic - Concord Museum - Concord, MA - DSC05597.JPG|thumb|''Uncle Tom and Eva'', [[Staffordshire figure]], England, 1855–1860, glazed and painted [[earthenware]]]]
A specific impetus for the novel was the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]], which imposed heavy fines upon law enforcement personnel in Northern states if they refused to assist the return of people who escaped from slavery.<ref name="parfait" /><ref name="law">{{cite web |title=The Fugitive Slave Act |publisher=U.S. Constitution Online |url=http://www.usconstitution.net/fslave.html |access-date=2008-10-03}}</ref> The new law also stripped African Americans of the right to request a jury trial or to testify on their own behalf, even if they were legally free, whenever a single claimant presented an [[affidavit]] of ownership.<ref name="law" /> The same law authorized a $1000 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=1000|start_year=1850}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) fine and six months imprisonment for anyone who knowingly harbored or assisted a fugitive slave.<ref name="law" /> These terms infuriated Stowe, so the novel was written, read, and debated as a political [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] tract.<ref name="parfait" />

Stowe drew inspiration for the Uncle Tom character from several sources. The best-known of these was [[Josiah Henson]], an ex-slave whose autobiography, ''[[The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself]]'', was originally published in 1849 and later republished in two extensively revised editions after the publication of ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''.<ref name="winks">{{cite book |last=Winks |first=Robin W. |year=2003 |title=Autobiography of Josiah Henson: An Inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom (introduction) |publisher=Courier Dover Publications |isbn=978-0-486-42863-5 |pages=v–vi, x–xi, xviii–xix |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bCYuNTzua2cC&q=Uncle+Tom |access-date=2009-04-16}}</ref> Henson was enslaved at birth in 1789.<ref name="winks" /> He became a Christian at age eighteen and began preaching.<ref name="winks" /> Henson attempted to purchase his freedom for $450, but after selling his personal assets to raise $350 and signing a promissory note for the remainder, Henson's owner raised the price to $1000; Henson was unable to prove that the original agreement had been for a lesser amount.<ref name="winks" /> Shortly afterward Henson was ordered on a trip south to [[New Orleans]]. When he learned that he was to be sold there, he obtained a weapon. He contemplated murdering his white companions with the weapon, but decided against violence because his Christian morals forbade it.<ref name="winks" /> A sudden illness in one of his companions forced their return to [[Kentucky]], and shortly afterward Henson escaped north with his family, settling in Canada where he became a civic leader.<ref name="winks" />

Stowe read the first edition of Henson's narrative and later confirmed that she had incorporated elements from it into ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''.<ref name="winks" /> Kentucky and New Orleans figure in both Henson's narrative and the novel's settings, and some other story elements are similar.<ref name="winks" />

In the public imagination, however, Henson became synonymous with Uncle Tom.<ref name="winks" /> After Stowe's death her son and grandson claimed she and Henson had met before ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' was written, but the chronology does not hold up to scrutiny and she probably drew material only from his published autobiography.<ref name="winks" />