Ernest Linwood; Or, the Inner Life of the Author — Caroline Lee Hentz

Caroline Lee Whiting Hentz (1800-1856) was an American novelist and author, most noted for her opposition to the abolitionist movement and her widely-read rebuttal to the popular anti-slavery book Uncle Tom's Cabin. She was a major literary figure in her day, and helped advance women's fiction. Caroline Hentz in her everyday life was almost identical to her pro-abolitionist adversary Harriet Beecher Stowe. "The Planter's Northern Bride, " published in 1854 in Philadelphia, would be Hentz's last published and most widely known work before her death two years later. In this body of work, Caroline Hentz came to the definitive defense of slavery. Hentz used her expertise, having lived for many years in the South, to claim that she was more knowledgeable about slavery than Stowe. Hentz wrote about the caring relationship between master and slave, a Southern opinion on slavery that strongly contrasted with the New England-bred Stowe's characterization of the institution. Her other works include Ernest Linwood; or, The Inner Life of the Author (1856) and The Lost Daughter (1857).