Mary Henderson Eastman (1818–1887) was an American novelist and historian whose literary career was defined by her depictions of Native American life and her defense of the antebellum Southern slaveholding system. As the wife of Seth Eastman, a prominent American illustrator and army officer, she had opportunities to observe and document Native American cultures, which she translated into several historical and narrative works.\n\nEastman achieved her greatest literary prominence with the publication of her 1852 novel, Aunt Phillis's Cabin; Or, Southern Life As It Is. Written as a direct counter-narrative to Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, Eastman's work sought to portray plantation life and the institution of slavery in a benevolent, idealized light. The novel became one of the most widely read "anti-Tom" novels of the era, earning Eastman significant fame and cementing her role as an active participant in the intense political and cultural debates of pre-Civil War America.
