I am glad you pointed this out! I read Uncle Tom's Cabin many years ago, and could not understand why calling people an Uncle Tom was an insult because he was, in fact, exemplary. His goodness was contrasted with the evil of the slave owner Simon Legree.

The book was a bestseller - in fact, the only book that sold mroe copies in the 19th century was the Bible. Apparently it sold 1.5 million copies in Great Britain alone, and there were 17 printing presses going 24 hours a day to meet demand.

Its popularity is credited with spreading anti-slavery sentiment by personalizing the slaves and creating outrage for the evils of the institution. Lincoln, when he met Harriet Beecher Stowe, called her the little woman responsible for "this great war".

Yet now Uncle Tom is a pejorative term, which I never understood given his actual character.

I also never understood the banning of books like Huckleberry Finn. Yes, it uses racial language, but that was accurate for the time period. More important was that it showed the friendship between Jim (a runaway slave) and Huck, and it effectively satirized racism. It portrayed Jim as a much better person than many of the white characters in the book.