The owners' barbaric treatment of slaves and the stories of their dangers and escape from plantations were well documented in the media of the time. But Stowe succeeded where other abolitionist writers had failed, because his writings created a deep emotional connection and elevated the slave to the status of a human being. In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe portrays the slave as someone who is capable of having thoughts and feelings, not just a commodity that must be replaced with another. Stowe brings to life Americans' views of the humanity of slaves and places emphasis on how slavery was a tool used to separate families and abuse other human beings. He achieves this by providing chilling details about the extent of courage and sacrifice that slaves were willing to make to maintain their dignity. She shows a woman's motherly love towards her children when she writes about Eliza and her escape from the South across the frozen Ohio River, all done to ensure her son's freedom and safety. Stowe goes further by shocking his audience with Cassy's story and how she commits infanticide rather than force her newborn into the calamities and humiliations of slavery. Another mother, Lucy, kills herself when her baby is sold and taken away