This article is meant to be a comparative analysis of the development of the main characters in relation to the dichotomy established between liberty and slavery as presented in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab. The aim of this article is to identify the similarities and differences between both novels as regards their main characters (Tom/Sab), their social discourse (abolitionism/ antislavery) or their genre (social novel/romantic novel) so as to highlight the importance of the Cuban writer Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda as precursor of the antislavery novel, which eventually gave way to the abolitionist genre represented by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s seminal novel, published some years later.