Aunt Bertha's Trunk offers something for every reader through a series of short stories and two novellas: for women, an opportunity to see just how badly women were treated at the turn of the century, to eavesdrop on conversations involving women's rights between Harriet "Hattie" Beecher Stowe and Julia Ward Howe when they meet by accident in 1846 at a health spa in Vermont, and to witness Hattie expressing her conviction that an outer force has directed the writing of Uncle Tom's Cabin. For men, a chance to participate in Civil War battles as they unfold and become transfixed by the actions of a demonic murderer. For all readers, a chance to spend time with Mark Twain, John Brown, and Frederick Douglass, who are facing their own challenges. Hattie and Julia live in a fascinating time when the country is preparing for war and then shaking off its effects, a time when women are struggling to assert their rights, and a time when the country is transitioning from Victorian purity to a swifter current. Here the reader will discover two highspirited representatives of their age eager to describe in detail their negative views about a society that denies them certain key rights, including the right to vote.