Antedating of "Underclass"

[Beverly Flanigan]

A wonderful quotation!  Can you explain Project Gutenberg a bit for the
naive among us?  I've heard of it but never got full details.  Thanks!

At 04:57 PM 12/28/2004, you wrote:
>underclass (OED 1918)
>
>1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ ch. 23 (Project Gutenberg)
>"I tell you," said Augustine, "if there is anything that is
>revealed with the strength of a divine law in our times, it is that
>the masses are to rise, and the under class become the upper one."
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
>
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>Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
>Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
>   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
>Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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