Uncle Tom's Cabin, an antislavery book written by Harriot Beecher Stow, was the best selling book of the 19th century. It told the story of a slave, who was savagely beaten and treated poorly. This put a face to abolitionism. When northerners read this book, they felt as if slavery was wrong, and they felt for the African-American in the story. Southerners viewed this as radical propaganda, and felt as if serious lies were being told against them.