Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp.
First American Edition
Of Stowe’s Second Anti-Slavery Novel
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1856.
2 vols., 8vo.; dark brown cloth, stamped in blind and gilt; contemporary gift inscription; spine lettering lightly faded; light wear to head and heel of spines.
First edition of Stowe’s second anti-slavery fiction: BAL 19389. Dred did not attain the sales or critical acclaim of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The narrative follows a finely drawn male slave, based on Nat Turner, through his life in bondage, and describes his heroic, though ultimately futile, attempts to become the master of his own fate. Three particular events (which occurred during a two-week period) are said to have inspired Stowe to write the book: Preston Smith Brook‘s retaliatory blows in the Senate chamber on behalf of a chastised relative; Henry Ward Beecher‘s sensational “slave auction” protest over Charles Sumner‘s caning; and the Pottawatomie massacre of pro-slavery supporters by John Brown and company. Together, these incidents lead Stowe to feel “suddenly borne by the inspiration which had carried her so triumphantly through Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (The Novels of Harriet Beecher Stowe, by Alice Crozier, NY: Oxford University Press, 1969, p. 40). Like Uncle Tom, Dred served the pro-slavery movement with a one-two punch, vividly illustrating the ways in which slavery brutalizes all humanity. With typical modesty, Stowe would later attribute Dred’s success “to God, to whom I prayed night and day while I was writing the book...” (Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles Edward Stowe, Boston: Houghton, 1889, 273, 279.)
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