This short biography tells the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the daughter of a New England abolitionist who wrote the landmark novel Uncle Tom's Cabin which did much to incite American sympathy for Negroes toiling under the slavery in the south. It shows how her life as daughter and sister of Protestant preachers, and work with her abolitionist husband on the Underground Railroad contributed insights into her views on slavery. Show All     Download:     PDF       EPUB

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

Preface

A hundred years ago, a large family of boys and girls came to gladden a Connecticut home. Two out of the dozen were to come to world wide fame—Henry Ward Beecher, one of the greatest of pulpit orators, and his sister Harriet, author of an epoch-making book. Harriet's early life was in no sense remarkable; she was happy and care-free, and although she married a man who had no worldly goods, she did her share as a provider. The author of several books and many short stories, her chief fame to-day rests as author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. When issued in book form, more than half a million copies were sold within five years—a tremendous sale for those days. Everybody read the book and either praised or condemned it, according to whether they lived North or South. Its terrific arraignment of slavery did no little to hasten the Civil War. "So you are the little lady who started the War!" remarked Lincoln to Mrs. Stowe, when he first met her.

This story of her life is unexpectedly rich in dramatic incident. But she never posed as a "lion." Mrs. Stowe was a very human and very friendly sort of person, whom to know even at second-hand is to admire.

The material used in this manuscript was gathered chiefly from Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe, by Annie Fields; Harriet Beecher Stowe, by Chas. E. Stowe and Lyman Beecher Stowe; and Harriet Beecher Stowe, a Biography for Girls, by Martha Foote Crow; together with miscellaneous sources; to all of which the author de-sires to express appreciation.