Stowe was a pious daughter, sister, and wife of Congregationalist ministers and she epitomized the powerful religious underpinnings of the abolitionist movement. Her motivation for writing the novel was her disgust with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. By 1855, her novel was called “the most popular novel of our day.” It depicts a combination of unlikely saints and sinners, stereotypes, fugitive slaves, escapades, and the sad realities of slavery that was made real to readers. Many slaveholders were dissatisfied with her novel, and one mailed Stowe an anonymous parcel with a severed ear of a disobedient slave. Although her novel took time to have effect on public opinión, the North were more open to the abolitionist ideas and movements to increase because readers were able to develop empathy for the slaves as they read the novel. Faced with the realistic horrors of slavery, the Northerners were able to unite in their anti-slavery beliefs that grew so strong to contradict beliefs of the South and go to war for their …show more content…
Sandford. Scott was born a slave in VA around 1800 and was sold to an army surgeon in 1830 who took him to Illinois, then to the Wisconsin Territory and finally back to St. Louis in 1842. His owner died in 1843 and Scott attempted to buy his freedom and in 1846 his wife persuaded him to file a suit in the Missouri courts that claimed that residence in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory had made him into a free man. A jury decided in his favor but the state supreme court ruled against him and eventually the case rose on appeal to the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice Roger Taney said that because Scott lacked citizenship, he also lacked legal standing like all former slaves. He was an ardent supporter of the South and slavery and claimed that blacks had were considered as inferior for more than a century that they had no rights same to the whites. Taney’s decision began flames of dissension and republicans protested the decision because it nullified their anti-slavery program. IT also reinforced the suspicion that the pro-slavery group was starting a conspiracy because all but one justices who had voted with Taney were southerners. This started suspicion and further division of the two groups and sparked tensions of