Uncle Tom's cabin up for sale at $1.4m

The cabin's oak beams are still covered in bark and the cellar floor is still made of packed mud. If this small building bristles with history, then little wonder.

This was Uncle Tom's cabin - home to a real-life slave whose autobiography inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe's still controversial novel of the same name.

The phrase "Uncle Tom" has become an insult for African Americans accused of selling-out their race or seeking approval of the white community.

Having been owned by the same family for years, the cabin - along with the three-bedroom colonial house to which it is attached - is being sold. Historical associations are already campaigning to raise the funds to preserve the building.

The house and cabin in Rockville, Maryland, close to Washington, was owned by Hildegarde Mallet-Prevost, who died in September aged 100. Her son, Greg, said while her children would have liked to have kept the property, it did not suit their lifestyles. They are hoping it will be bought by an institution. It is on the market for US$990,000 (NZ$1.4 million).

The cabin was once the home of Josiah Henson, whose 1849 autobiography, The Life of Josiah Henson, formerly a Slave, inspired Beecher Stowe. Born into slavery in 1789, he lived in the cabin after becoming superintendent of the farming operation on a plantation owned by Isaac Riley. He and his family eventually escaped to Canada.

- INDEPENDENT