Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe
Born	Harriet Elisabeth Beecher June 14, 1811(1811-06-14) , United States
Died	July 1, 1896(1896-07-01) (aged 85) , United States
Pen name	Christopher Crowfield
Nationality	American
Genres	Historical fiction
Notable work(s)	Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) depicted life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom and made the political issues of the 1850s regarding slavery tangible to millions, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. Upon meeting Stowe, Abraham Lincoln allegedly remarked, "So you're the little lady who started this great war!"^[1] The quote is apocryphal; it did not appear in print until 1896, and it has been argued that "The long-term durability of Lincoln's greeting as an anecdote in literary studies and Stowe scholarship can perhaps be explained in part by the desire among many contemporary intellectuals ... to affirm the role of literature as an agent of social change." ^[2]

Life

Harriet Elisabeth Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 14, 1811. She was the daughter of outspoken religious leader Lyman Beecher and Roxana Foote, a deeply religious woman who died when Stowe was four years old. She was the sister of the educator and author, Catharine Beecher, clergymen Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, and Edward Beecher.

Harriet enrolled in the seminary run by her eldest sister Catharine, where she received a traditionally "male" education. At the age of 21, she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to join her father, who had become the president of Lane Theological Seminary, and in 1836 she married Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor at the seminary and an ardent critic of slavery. The Stowes supported the Underground Railroad and housed several fugitive slaves in their home. They eventually moved to Brunswick, Maine, where Calvin taught at Bowdoin College.

In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law, prohibiting assistance to fugitives. Stowe was moved to present her objections on paper, and in June 1851, the first installment of Uncle Tom's Cabin appeared in the antislavery journal National Era. The 40-year-old mother of seven children sparked a national debate and, as Abraham Lincoln is said to have noted, a war. Stowe died on July 1, 1896, at age eighty-five, in Hartford, Connecticut.

Landmarks related to Harriet Beecher Stowe

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati, Ohio is the former home of her father Lyman Beecher on the former campus of the Lane Seminary. Her father was a preacher who was greatly affected by the pro-slavery riots that took place in Cincinnati in 1834. Harriet Beecher Stowe lived here until her marriage. It is open to the public and operated as an historical and cultural site, focusing on Harriet Beecher Stowe, the Lane Seminary and the Underground Railroad. The site also presents African-American history.^[3]

In the 1870s and 1880s, Stowe and her family wintered in Mandarin, Florida, now a suburb of modern consolidated Jacksonville, on the St. Johns River. Stowe wrote Palmetto Leaves while living in Mandarin, arguably the most effective and eloquent piece of promotional literature directed at Florida's potential Northern investors at the time.^[4] The book was published in 1873 and describes Northeast Florida and its residents. In 1870, Stowe created an integrated school in Mandarin for children and adults. This was an early step toward providing equal education in the area and predated the national movement toward integration by more than a half century. The marker commemorating the Stowe family is located across the street from the former site of their cottage. It is on the property of the Community Club, at the site of a church where Stowe's husband once served as a minister.

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Brunswick, Maine is where Uncle Tom's Cabin was written while Harriet and Calvin lived there when Calvin worked at Bowdoin College. Although local interest for its preservation as a museum has been strong in the past, it has long been an inn and German restaurant. It most recently changed ownership in 1999 for $865,000.

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Hartford, Connecticut is the house where Harriet lived for the last 23 years of her life next door to fellow author Mark Twain. In this 5,000 sq ft (460 m²) cottage style house, there are many of Beecher Stowe's original items and items from the time period. In the research library, which is open to the public, there are numerous letters and documents from the Beecher family. The house is opened to the public and offers house tours on the half hour.

In 1833, during Stowe's time in Cincinnati, the city was afflicted with a serious influenza epidemic. To avoid illness, Stowe made a visit to Washington, KY, a major Kentucky community of the era just south of Maysville, KY, staying with the Marshall Key family, one of whose daughters was a student at Lane Seminary. Slave auctions often occurred in Washington, and it is recorded that Mr. Key took her to see such an auction. It is assumed that the sight impressed itself very strongly on Stowe. The Marshall Key home still stands in Washington. Key was a prominent Kentuckian; his visitors also included Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Numerous slaves crossed the Ohio River near Ripley, OH, some 10 miles downriver from Maysville. (Calvert and Klee, Towns of Mason County [KY], LCCN 86-62637, 1986, Maysville and Mason County Library, Historical, and Scientific Association.)

Honors

Stowe is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on July 1.

On June 13, 2007, the United States Postal Service issued a 75¢ Distinguished Americans series postage stamp in her honor.

Statuary Hall vote

In early 2010, Stowe was proposed by the Ohio Historical Society as a finalist in a statewide vote for inclusion in Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol.

Partial list of works

• The Mayflower; or, Sketches of Scenes and Characters Among the Descendants of the Pilgrims (1834)
• Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
• A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853)
• Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856)
• The Minister's Wooing (1859)
• The Pearl of Orr's Island (1862)
• Old Town Folks (1869)
• Little Pussy Willow (1870)
• Lady Byron Vindicated (1870)
• My Wife and I (1871)
• Pink and White Tyranny (1871)
• Woman in Sacred History (1873)
• Palmetto Leaves (1873)
• We and Our Neighbors (1875)
• Poganuc People (1878)
• The Poor Life (1890)

As Christopher Crowfield

• House and Home Papers (1865)
• Little Foxes (1866)
• The Chimney Corner (1868)

See also

• Abolitionism
• Origins of the American Civil War
• Semi-Colon Club
• Slavery

References and further reading

• Adams, John R. (1963). Harriet Beecher Stowe. Twayne Publishers, Inc.. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 63-17370. 
• Jeanne Boydston, Mary Kelley, and Anne Margolis, The Limits of Sisterhood: The Beecher Sisters on Women's Rights and Woman's Sphere (U of North Carolina Press, 1988),
• Matthews, Glenna. "'Little Women' Who Helped Make This Great War" in Gabor S. Boritt, ed. Why the Civil War Came - Oxford University Press pp 31–50.
• Gossett, Thomas F. Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture. Southern Methodist University Press: 1985.
• Hedrick, Joan D. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. Oxford University Press: 1994, the main scholarly biography
• Rourke, Constance Mayfield. Trumpets of Jubilee: Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lyman Beecher, Horace Greeley, P.T. Barnum (1927).
• Stowe, Charles Edward. The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe: Compiled from her letters and journals. (1889). by her son
• Thulesius, Olav (2001). Harriet Beecher Stowe in Florida, 1867-1884. McFarland and Company, Inc.. ISBN 0-7864-0932-0. 
• Sundquist, Eric J. ed. New Essays on Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Cambridge University Press: 1986.
• Weinstein, Cindy. The Cambridge Companion to Harriet Beecher Stowe. Cambridge UP, 2004. ISBN 978-0-521-53309-6
• Wilson, Edmund. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War (1962) pp 3–58
• Stowe, Harriet Beecher: Three Novels (Kathryn Kish Sklar, ed.) (Library of America, 1982) ISBN 978-0-94045001-1
• Fritz, Jean. Harriet Beacher Stowe and The Beecher Preachers

Other sources

• Bailey, Gamaliel. Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Book Review. Washington, D.C.: The National Era, 1852
• Brown, David. The Planter; or, Thirteen Years in the South. Philadelphia: H. Hooker, 1852
• Douglass, Frederick. Letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe
• London Times Review, 1852. American Slavery. English opinion of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
• Slavery in the South. Cambridge: John Barlett, 1852
• Stearns, Reverend E.J. Notes on Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Philadelphia: Grambo &Co., 1853
• Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. USA: 1852. New York: Barnes and Nobles Classics: 2003.
• Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Letters
• The Patent Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Mrs. Stowe in England. New York: Pudney & Russell, 1853
• American Council of Learned Societies. Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe. 1928-1936
• Bland, Celia. Harriet Beecher Stowe: Antislavery Author. Chelsea House Publishers: 1993.
• Claybaugh, Amanda. Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Introduction. New York: Barnes and Nobles Classics: 2003.
• Coil, Suzanne M. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Franklin Watts: 1993.
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Johnston, Johanna. Harriet and the Runaway Book. USA: Harper and Row Publishers: 1977.
• Marck, John T. Harriet Beecher Stowe: her Life and Writings
• The Classical Text: Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Also wrote Poetry: Go to http://www.poetry-archive.com/s/stowe_harriet_beecher.html to read.

Notes

External links

• Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin: an Electronic Edition of the National Era Version — Edited by textual scholar Wesley Raabe, this is the first edition of the novel to be based on the original text published in the National Era
• Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture — A multimedia archive edited by Stephen Railton about the Stowe's novel's place in American history and society
• Harriet Beecher Stowe House & Center — Stowe's adulthood home in Hartford, Connecticut
• Meet Harriet Beecher Stowe, renowned author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin — A live performance showcasing the life and times of this historical woman.
• Harriet Beecher Stowe Society — Scholarly organization dedicated to the study of the life and works of Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Brief biography at Kirjasto (Pegasos)
• The Online Books Page (University of Pennsylvania)
• Works by Harriet Beecher Stowe at Project Gutenberg
  • Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe Compiled From Her Letters and Journals by Her Son Charles Edward Stowe at Project Gutenberg
• Harriet Beecher Stowe's brief biography and works
• History's Women: Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Uncle Tom's Cabin, online text with audio. (PDF)
• "Uncle Tom's Cabin: the book that ignited a nation"
• Top-rated online version Black Freighter Productions' free online version of Stowe's "Queer Little Folks" (entire text, professional layout, PDF.)
• "How To Live on Christ" a pamphlet by Harriet Beecher Stowe, taken from her Introduction to Chistopher Dean's "Religion As It Should Be or The Remarkable Experience and Triumphant Death of Ann Thane Peck" published in 1847 Hudson Taylor sent a pamphlet using the words of this preface out to all the missionaries of the China Inland Mission in 1869.
• Barron's BookNotes for Uncle Tom's Cabin - The Author and Her Times

Sister projects

• Works related to Harriet Beecher Stowe at Wikisource

• Media related to Harriet Beecher Stowe at Wikimedia Commons