Harriet Beecher Stowe is considered by many to have written the most influencial American novel in history. When she met President Lincoln in 1862, he reportedly called her "the little lady who started this big war." Indeed, Uncle Tom's Cabin was the first social protest novel published in the United States. In analyses of Uncle Tom's Cabin, many critics feel that Stowe's writing was deeply influenced by the fact that her father, husband, and brothers were all ministers. Because she was a woman and therefore could not preach, Stowe let her Christianity inspire her first, most important and influencial novel. Stowe was also inspired by her personal experience with the antislavery movement during her childhood on the northern side of the Ohio River, a border between slave states and freedom. With the urging of her sister-in-law, Stowe decided to use her writing skills to further the abolitionist, or anti-slavery, cause. Thus, Uncle Tom's Cabin was born.