O, that's what troubles me, papa. You want me to live so happy, and never to have any pain,—never suffer anything,—not even hear a sad story, when other poor creatures have nothing but pain and sorrow, all their lives,—it seems selfish. I ought to know such things, I ought to feel about them!

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.