When Harriet Beecher Stowe met with President Lincoln in November 1862, he reportedly addressed her as the author of the book that started the Civil War. Stowe’s massively influential novel makes a point so basic that it hardly seems necessary: slavery befits no human being, enslaved or enslaver.

Robert E. Wright is a Senior Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.
Other Independent Review articles by Robert E. Wright
Fall 2023 The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market
Spring 2022 The Political Economy of Modern Wildlife Management: How Commercialization Could Reduce Game Overabundance
Spring 2022 Cronyism: Liberty vs. Power in America, 1607–1849
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