In 1852 there were at least five shops in Richmond where readers could buy books, but only two of them ever listed the nation's best-selling book in their ads in the local paper — and each only once.
Those ads are asterisked on the list of links below. The other ads you can access appeared in The Richmond Daily Dispatch during the first year after the publication of Stowe's novel, and feature the various responses to it that were advertised for sale in Richmond, from "anti-Tom" fictions to critical reviews. Surprisingly, two booksellers also offer Richard Hildreth's White Slave, the 1852 reprinting of his anti-slavery novel Archy Moore; perhaps the title gave them the impression it was another "anti-Tom" novel.
The notice of an "anti-Tom" play above is from the 1 April 1853 Dispatch. We haven't found any other mention of it, in the Dispatch or elsewhere.
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