In 1852, the harsh and cruel slave trade of America was attacked by abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe in her book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was the world's best selling novel (other than The Bible) in the 19th century.In its first year of publication, more than one million copies were sold in Great Britain alone and countless plays followed in the ensuing years. It is believed anti-slavery sentiment generated by the book in the 1850's was a major contributing factor in the American Civil War (1861-1865).In 1928, Ub Iwerks corroborated with his friend, Walt Disney, to create an anthropomorphic mouse, replacing Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, an animated character he'd created, but who's publishing rights were owned by Universal Pictures. Their success with Steamboat Willie (1928), one of the first animated films with sound, launched the career of the most recognizable animated character in the world, Mickey Mouse.By 1933, Disney had produced numerous cartoons and had already been awarded two Academy Awards for his works, including The Three Little Pigs (1933), considered the most successful short animation of all time. Disney's vision used emotionally charged stories to interest his audiences and led to the production and release of Mickey's Mellerdrammer (1933), an 8 minute cartoon based on Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, in which Mickey and his barnyard friends recreate an early minstrel show, wearing face black to stereotype their characters.In the opening scene, Clarabelle Cow is seen applying lantern soot to her face and leaving the area around her mouth untouched, creating large white lips. Meanwhile Mickey, to apply his makeup, puts a firecracker in his mouth and lights it.When it explodes, the ashes paint his face black and leave a large area around his lips white.This series of six original animation drawings in pencil for Walt Disney's Mickey's Mellerdrammer (1933), show Mickey using firecrackers to blacken his face for his character in the production. Each of these drawings would have been traced through a celluloid sheet and then painted before being photographed and used in the movie. Walt considered the animation drawings to be the true art of animation and all other aspects of the production to be merely crafts.Original animation drawings, Walt Disney Studios, c. 1933Framed images 16.75 x 33.75 inches