[Gutenberg 16741] • Aunt Phillis's Cabin; Or, Southern Life As It Is

Aunt Phillis's Cabin; or, Southern Life As It Is by Mary Henderson Eastman is a plantation fiction novel, and is perhaps the most read anti-Tom novel in American literature. It was published by Lippincott, Grambo & Co. of Philadelphia in 1852 as a response to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, published earlier that year. The novel sold 20,000-30,000 copies, making it a strong commercial success and bestseller. Based on her growing up in Warrenton, Virginia of an elite planter family, Eastman portrays plantation owners and slaves as mutually respectful, kind, and happy beings.Born in Virginia and raised near Washington, D.C., Mary Henderson Eastman married artist and army officer Seth Eastman at West Point in 1835. In 1841, Mary Eastman accompanied her husband to Fort Snelling on the upper Mississippi River. Residing there seven years, Mrs. Eastman learned the Sioux language and tribal customs and legends, which she wove into literary romances. Eastman's first book, Dahcotah, which her husband illustrated, appeared in 1849, and its success encouraged her literary career. She published further volumes of Indian tales (1853-1855), a fictional response to Uncle Tom's cabin (1852), and sentimental fiction on other subjects (1856-1879).