STOWE, Mistress Harriet Beecher. La Clef de la Case L’ Oncle Tom: contenant les faits et les documents originaux sur lesquels le roman est fondé, avec les pièces justificatives.

(Paris): Aux Bureaux du Magasin Pittoresque, 1853.  First French edition.  Octavo.  399 pages.  The first French edition of A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin translated by Old Nick and Adolphe Joanne.  The volume was published to document the veracity of the depiction of slavery in Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). The book also provides insights into Stowe’s own views on slavery.  After the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Southerners accused Stowe of misrepresenting slavery. In order to show that she had neither lied about slavery nor exaggerated the plight of enslaved people, she compiled A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The book was subtitled “Presenting the Original Facts and Documents upon Which the Story Is Founded, Together with Corroborative Statements Verifying the Truth of the Work”  One English review of the 1853 publication called it a “marvelous book, more so if possible than Uncle Tom’s Cabin itself” (The Eclectic Review 4 (May 1853): 600–617).  This a very good copy in original printed wrappers.