Uncle Tom's cab is an abolitionist novel written by the American Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes towards African Americans and slavery in the United States and heightened the conflict that led to the American Civil War. Stowe, an active abolitionist, focused the novel on Uncle Tom's character and the long suffering of black slaves around which the stories of other characters intertwine. The novel depicts the cruel reality of slavery and states that Christian love can overcome the destruction and enslavement of other human beings. Regarded as racist and condescending by some contemporary critics, it remains a shocking, controversial and powerful work.