Washington, Jan. 18 (AFP): The original “uncle Tom’s cabin”, made famous in the renowned 19th-century novel of slavery, was sold to a suburban Washington county for $1 million, local officials said.

The rustic log cabin in Bethesda, Maryland, is the original home of Josiah Henson, the model for uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 story of African-American slavery.

A ceremony marking the sale took place on Monday on the birthday of US civil rights leader Martin Kuther King Jr.