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Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) is best known today as the
author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which helped galvanize the
abolitionist cause and contributed to the outbreak of the
Civil War. Uncle Tom's Cabin sold over 10,000 copies in the
first week and was a best seller of its day. After the publication
of Uncle Tom's Cabin,
Stowe became an internationally acclaimed celebrity and an
extremely popular author. In addition to novels, poetry and essays, she wrote
non-fiction books on a wide range of subjects including
homemaking and the raising of children, and religion. She
wrote in an informal conversational style, and presented herself as
an average wife and mother.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's writing career spanned 51 years,
during which time she published 30 books and countless shorter
pieces. Harriet made time for writing in her life while she
was busy raising seven children and managing a household.
She was fortunate in having the support of her husband
Calvin Stowe who always encouraged his wife in her career.
This kind of support from a husband was unusual at the time
when women were not expected to have a career outside the
home.
A comprehensive bibliography for Harriet Beecher Stowe can be found at the following web site:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/stowe/stowbib.html
Harriet Elisabeth Beecher was born June 14, 1811 in Litchfield,
Connecticut, where her father, the Reverend Lyman Beecher
(1775-1863), was a prominent and influential Congregational
minister. Her mother, Roxanna Foote Beecher(1775-1816), who
died when Harriet was only five, was always interested in
improving herself educationally. Harriet pursued this same
goal throughout her life.
In 1820 Lyman preached anti-slavery sermons in response to
the issue of whether Missouri should be admitted to the
union as a slave or a free state. Lyman's dynamic preaching,
religious energy and commitment had a profound impact on all
of his children. He encouraged an intellectual environment
at home and would often lead family debates on important
issues of the day. Lyman Beecher dedicated his life to the
saving of individual souls. He believed that unless an
individual made a personal commitment to the Christian
religion that he/she was doomed. All of Lyman's children
carried out Lyman's commitment to their religion, but in a
new way. They thought of God as much more loving and
forgiving, and believed that the best way of serving God was to
take action in society to make a better world.
Harriet's career as a writer shows how she acted out this
vision.
Harriet was one of eleven brothers and sisters, many of whom
became famous reformers. Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), a
noted minister in Brooklyn, New York, was active in the
abolitionist movement. Catharine Beecher (1800-1878) founded
many schools for young women throughout the country and was a prolific author while
her youngest sister, Isabella (1822-1907), became active in
the women's suffrage movement.
Harriet was first a student and then a teacher at Hartford
Female Seminary, a school founded by her sister Catharine.
At that time, Hartford Female Seminary was one of only a
handful of schools that took the education of girls
seriously. Catharine introduced many innovations at the
school including teaching physical education and
domestic science (home economics), and the practice of
student government. At that time girls were expected to
remain at home and needed very little education. Catharine
helped to change these ideas. She argued that running a home
was as complicated as running an office and that young women
should be instructed in these duties the same way boys
should be instructed in careers outside the home. Catharine
also stressed the importance of written expression. Her
students spent many hours composing essays. As a result of
Catharine's teaching methods, Harriet received an unusually
fine education, and, under her sister's guidance, began to
develop her talent as a writer.
For more information on the Beecher family, visit the following site: www.newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/beecher/
In 1832 Harriet moved with her family to Cincinnati, Ohio,
where Lyman Beecher became President of Lane Theological
Seminary. At that time, Cincinnati was considered the western
frontier of the United States. In Cincinnati, Harriet met and married Calvin E. Stowe, a
professor at Lane. Six of the Stowes' seven children were
born in Cincinnati.
Cincinnati was just across the river from Kentucky, a slave
state. It was in Cincinnati that Harriet first became
aware of the horrors of slavery. Cincinnati was one of the
largest cities in the country, twice the size
of Hartford at that time. When Harriet and Calvin learned
that their servant, Zillah, was actually a runaway slave,
Calvin and Henry Ward drove her to the next station on the Underground Railroad.
One night, Harriet's friend, Mr. Rankin, saw a young woman
run across the river over the ice with a baby in her arms.
This story moved Harriet deeply and would later become one of
the most famous scenes in Uncle Tom's Cabin.
In Cincinnati, Harriet became a member of the Semi-Colon
Club, a local literary society in which members wrote
articles which were read and discussed by other participants. Her
experiences in this club sharpened her writing style. During
her early married years, Harriet began to publish stories
and magazine articles to supplement the family income. While
she lived in Cincinnati, Harriet co-authored a
book, Primary Geography for Children. After the publication
of this book Harriet received a special commendation from
the bishop of Cincinnati because it conveyed a
positive image of the Catholic religion. Harriet's religious
tolerance was unusual for Protestants at the time.
In 1850 Professor Stowe joined the faculty of his alma
mater, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. The Stowe family
moved to Maine and lived in Brunswick until 1853.
Uncle Tom's Cabin, which appeared first in serial form in an
abolitionist newspaper, The National Era, in 1851-52, was
written largely in Brunswick. In 1852 the story was published
in book form in two volumes. Uncle Tom's Cabin was a best seller in
the United States, England, Europe, Asia, and
translated into over 60 languages. The passage of the
Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, which deeply distressed Harriet,
was a factor in inspiring her to write Uncle Tom's Cabin.
This Act made it a crime for citizens of free states to give
aid to runaway enslaved people.
Uncle Tom's Cabin humanized slavery by telling the story
of individuals and families. Harriet
portrayed the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse endured
by enslaved people. When she
created the character of Eliza, the slave mother, Harriet
drew upon her own experiences. In 1849 Harriet's own son
Charley died of cholera when he was only eighteen months
old. While remembering Charley's death, Harriet thought
about how terrible it would be for a slave mother to lose a
child because the child was sold. She wondered how a
slave mother would feel, never knowing what happened to her
own child. In chapter seven, aptly titled "A Mother's Struggle",
she hoped to convey to others the terror the fugitive slave mother
would feel:
"If it were your Harry, mother, or your Willie, that were
going to be torn from you by a brutal trader, tomorrow
morning,--if you had seen the man, and heard that the papers
were signed and delivered, and you had only from twelve
o'clock till morning to make good your escape,--how fast
could you walk? How many miles could you make in those few
brief hours, with the darling at your bosom,--the little
sleepy head on your shoulder,--the small, soft arms
trustingly holding on to your neck?"
Harriet's feelings about both the Fugitive Slave Act and the
death of Charley are conveyed in Uncle Tom's Cabin in her
description of the desperate flight of Eliza, a slave
mother. Eliza runs across a frozen river with her son Harry
in her arms to save him from being sold. Thus, the book grew
out of a combination of personal and political concerns.
Many readers criticized Harriet because she had never
visited the South. However, she had heard, from people
she knew personally, first hand
stories of conditions among the enslaved people. For example, Harriet employed an
African-American woman in Cincinnati who told her what is was like to be a woman under
slavery.
To learn more about Uncle Tom's Cabin, visit this site:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/utc/
According to legend, when Abraham Lincoln met Harriet
Beecher Stowe in 1862 he said, "So you're the little woman
who wrote the book that started this Great War!"
The Civil War grew out of a mixture of causes including
regional conflicts between North and South, economic trends,
and humanitarian concerns for the welfare of enslaved
people. This war, which pitted one section of the country
against another, almost destroyed the United States. Uncle Tom's
Cabin contributed to the outbreak of war because it
brought the evils of slavery to the attention of Americans
more vividly than any other book had done before. The book
had a strong emotional appeal that moved and inspired people
in a way that political speeches, tracts and newspapers
accounts could not duplicate.
Immediately after its publication Uncle Tom's Cabin was both
lauded as a tremendous achievement and attacked as one sided
and inaccurate. Abolitionists and reformers praised the book
for its compassionate portrayal of people held in slavery.
At the same time, others, who claimed that slavery was sanctioned
in the Bible, attacked Harriet and accused her of
fabricating unrealistic images of slavery.
During the Civil War, Harriet often disagreed with President
Lincoln. Lincoln's concern with preserving the
unity of the nation and his willingness to postpone freeing the
slaves made her impatient.
After the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet was
invited to the British Isles in 1853, where she was
greeted enthusiastically. She returned to Britain
and Europe in 1856 and 1859.
Through a column in a large New York newspaper, The
Independent, she urged the women of the United States to use
their influence against slavery by obtaining signatures on
petitions, spreading information, and inviting lecturers to
speak to community groups on the subject.
From Brunswick, the Stowes moved to Andover, Massachusetts,
where Calvin became a professor of theology at Andover
Theological Seminary from 1853 to 1864. After his
retirement, the family moved to Hartford, Connecticut. Here
Harriet Beecher Stowe built her dream house, Oakholm, but
the high maintenance cost and the encroachment of factories
caused her to sell it in 1870. In 1873, she moved to her
last home, the brick Victorian Gothic cottage-style house on Forest Street,
which visitors may see today.
During the Hartford years Calvin wrote the Origin and
History of the Books of the Bible (American Publishing
Company, 1867). This scholarly work was one of the first
books to examine the Bible from an historical point of view.
The book sold so well that Calvin received $10,000 in
royalties, which was considered a high amount at the time.
Calvin's reminiscences of his boyhood in Natick,
Massachusetts, provided Harriet with the basic material for
Oldtown Folks, (published 1869) and Sam Lawson's Oldtown
Fireside Stories (published 1872).
Throughout their marriage, Calvin encouraged Harriet in her
career as an author. In a letter he wrote to her in 1840 he
said, "my dear, you must be a literary woman. It is so written in the book of fate... Make all
your calculations accordingly."
Harriet and Calvin had seven children. Only three of the
children survived them.
never married and lived with their parents. When the twins were
young, Harriet worried that they were becoming too
frivolous. Her feelings contributed to the characterization
of the young women in her book My Wife and I and We and Our
Neighbors. As adults, the twins were competent and
responsible women who managed the family home and
participated in the social and cultural life of Hartford.
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Henry drowned at age nineteen while swimming in the Connecticut River
at Hanover, New Hampshire, at the end of his freshman year
at Dartmouth College. Harriet describes a mother's reaction
to her son's death in The Minister's Wooing.
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Frederick had originally hoped to become a doctor and studied medicine.
Fred, however, developed a problem with alcoholism.
When Fred enlisted in the Civil War, his parents were very
worried about his ability to withstand the stress of battle.
Fred was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg (1863). After
his injury, his alcoholism became much worse. After many
unsuccessful attempts to conquer his addiction, Fred went to
California in 1870 and was never heard from again. Most
historians believe that he died shortly after arriving on
the West Coast, but no one will ever know for sure. Fred was
the inspiration for the character of Tom Bolton in We and
Our Neighbors and My Wife and I. In these books Harriet
described alcoholism as an illness. Her attitude was very
modern since, at that time, most people believed that alcoholism
was a moral failure.
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usually called "Georgie" was probably the most talented of
the Stowe children. A mischievous and lively young girl,
Georgie provided part of the inspiration for the character
of Topsey in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Georgie had a difficult life
as an adult. Georgie was
given morphine as a painkiller after the birth of her son
and became addicted. At that time most doctors
were still unaware of the powerful addictive properties of
narcotics. Georgie was married to Henry Allen, an Episcopal
priest.
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known as "Charley," died during a cholera epidemic in
Cincinnati in 1849. Harriet's feelings about Charley's death
led to her description of slave mothers in Uncle Tom's Cabin.
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also called "Charley." Our Charley is based on Charles Stowe
as a child. Charles Stowe was ordained as a minister in
1878. He married Susan Monroe and had three children. From
the mid 1880's until the late 1890's he was minister of the
Simsbury, Connecticut, Congregational Church, not far from
his parents' home in Hartford.
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In the 1860's the Stowes purchased
property in Mandarin, Florida, on the St. John's River, built
a house, and began to travel South each winter. While in
Florida Harriet helped establish schools for African
American children and fostered the development of an
ecumenical church open to members of all denominations.
Harriet's brother Charles Beecher (1815-1900) joined the
Stowes in Florida, to
help the cause of the newly freed people.
The Stowes moved into their Forest Street home in Hartford
in 1873. A year later Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark
Twain and his family moved into an elaborate house just
across the lawn. Clemens wrote his most famous books while
he was living in this house, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and
Huckleberry Finn. The Clemens were a generation younger than
the Stowes. Sam Clemens was just about the same age as
the Stowe twins, Harriet and Eliza. The two families were
friendly and often visited each other.
For more information about Mark Twain, go to www.marktwainhouse.org.
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