The Woman Who Made A President

There is no question that Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin, her seminal anti-slavery bestseller, were at least partly responsible for Lincoln's election and the Civil War.

Stowe was critical of Lincoln for not freeing the slaves after his election, but came to see the wisdom of his decision to wait until the Union had won a major battle. When she finally did meet the president, he said to her half in jest, "So you are the little woman who caused the great war?"