Transcriber's Note:
Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.
DRED
A
TALE OF THE GREAT DISMAL SWAMP
BY
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
AUTHOR OF "UNCLE TOM'S CABIN"
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1892
Copyright, 1856 and 1884,
By HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
All rights reserved.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.
PREFACE.
The writer of this book has chosen, once more, a subject from the scenesand incidents of the slave-holding states.
The reason for such a choice is two-fold. First, in a merely artisticpoint of view, there is no ground, ancient or modern, whose vividlights, gloomy shadows, and grotesque groupings, afford to the novelistso wide a scope for the exercise of his powers. In the near vicinity ofmodern civilization of the most matter-of-fact kind exist institutionswhich carry us back to the twilight of the feudal ages, with all theirexciting possibilities of incident. Two nations, the types of twoexactly opposite styles of existence, are here struggling; and from theintermingling of these two a third race has arisen, and the three areinterlocked in wild and singular relations, that evolve every possiblecombination of romance.
Hence, if the writer's only object had been the production of a work ofart, she would have felt justified in not turning aside from that minewhose inexhaustible stores have but begun to be developed.
But this object, however legitimate, was not the only nor the highestone. It is the moral bearings of the subject involved which have had thechief influence in its selection.
The issues presented by the great conflict between liberty and slaverydo not grow less important from year to year. On the contrary, theirinterest increases with every step in the development of the nationalcareer. Never has there been a crisis in the history of this nation somomentous as the present. If ever a nation was raised up by DivineProvidence, and led forth upon a conspicuous stage, as if for theexpress purpose of solving a great moral problem in the sight of allmankind, it is[Pg iv] this nation. God in his providence is now asking theAmerican people, Is the system of slavery, as set forth in the Americanslave co