Death! Strange that there should be such a word, and such a thing, and we ever forget it; that one should be living, warm and beautiful, full of hopes, desires and wants, one day, and the next be gone, utterly gone, and forever!

Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom. I will only say now that it was all very funny—and we were ready to explode with laughter all the while. It energized anti-slavery forces in the American North while provoking widespread anger in the South.