In the era of Rush Limbaugh and a historic presidency, racism is a timely and controversial issue. People struggle to examine their own racial biases. The biggest obstacle is not understanding that racism is wrong, but rather the ability to open the hearts of the prejudiced to show how their prejudices affect more than those they stereotype. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs wrote stories to abolish slavery by appealing to the emotions of their audiences. All of their writings helped speed up the abolition process, but some books used different methods. The tales of Douglass and Jacobs portray the obvious horrors of slavery while advocating the importance of education as a tool for freedom. Uncle Tom's Cabin was a sentimental novel that included and undermined some of the stereotypes and assumptions made by Stowe's white audience. While some may argue that the subtlety of the novel failed to convince that slavery is wrong, it managed to become popular due to people's reaction to its controversial content. Stowe's novel was the bestseller of the 19th century because it used the subtle strategies available in fiction to woo its audience. Stowe wrote for the audience's interests, such as good morals and empathetic characters. While Douglass and Jacobs had to stick to the facts, Stowe could create compelling plots and engaging characters that audiences could be sympathetic to and critical of by detailed explanations of their thoughts and emotions. On the other hand, Jacobs and Douglass could not take such creative license. The freedom of a work of fiction allows for creativity and the ability to create plots that are interesting, however, this is different... middle of paper... ....creating fiction, Stowe would have understood the norms better social. The popularity of his lyrics suggests that nineteenth-century Americans were unprepared to see characters whose traits ran counter to those commonly accepted. Many Americans were threatened by objective narratives of graphic incidents. Because of their race and the lack of credibility associated with it, Jacobs and Douglass's audience was limited to a progressive group of abolitionists. In contrast, Stowe was able to engage a wide range of audience members in the process of empathizing with the large number of people harmed by slavery. Without the constraints of nonfiction, Stowe was able to direct her novel towards the public. Abraham Lincoln called her the "little lady who started the [civil] war" because she wrote a piece that appealed to her white audience.