The novel is one of several written in response to Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, which had been criticised by writers from both north and south for its allegedly exaggerated and/or inaccurate depiction of slavery [REF].
However, despite being written initially as a response to Stowe, Criswell's novel is a romance novel depicting love between a northern woman and a southern plantation owner [REF].