Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852. It was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible. It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States. Three years after it was published, it was called "the most popular novel of our day." The book opens with a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby facing the loss of his farm because of debts. Even though he and his wife Emily Shelby believe that they have a benevolent relationship with their slaves.