Why have the reactions to Uncle Toom's Cabin been so mixed?

I suppose it depends on your point of view. Uncle Tom's Cabin was the first social protest novel published in the United States.Today, Uncle Tom's Cabin is valued because it raises still pertinent issues of racism in the United States, as well as inspiriring feminist thought on the role of women and the conjunction of race and sex. Some criticize the novel, however, for being racist because of its sentimental and stereotypical characterizations of slaves. The triumph of the novel is not that it shows the widespread experience of slavery in the South, but rather that it portrays the personal tragedies the system caused. So too, Uncle Tom's Cabin challenged Northerners to end their hypocrisy and recognize their participation in the propagation of slavery.