A 19th-century novelist and major literary figure, Caroline Lee Whiting Hentz (1800-1856), was one of the most popular women writers in antebellum America. Born into a patriotic family and raised in Lancaster, Massachusetts, Hentz lived and worked for many years in the South and lived in Alabama for fourteen years. While she advanced domestic fiction with strong female characters that are both assertive and independent, Hentz is most remembered for her staunch opposition to abolition. Her best-known novel, The Planter’s Northern Bride, was written in response to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s popular anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.