The slave cabin that inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" will be preserved thanks to Maryland officials who agreed on Thursday to buy it for $1 million. In the early 19th century, the gray log cabin was home to Josiah Henson, a slave Stowe used as a model for the Uncle Tom character in her novel, a global bestseller that ignited abolitionist fervor in the United States before the Civil War. (Offsite: Reuters News Service)