Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which President Lincoln supposedly said was the cause of the Civil War. She came from a family of ministers and married one. They were all strongly anti-slavery. Harriet’s skill as a writer came early, when she was a student at her sister’s school. Harriet later became a teacher. She wrote many books. Her most famous was a dramatic tale that raised consciousness here and abroad about the evils of slavery. Harriet met President Lincoln, and he was quite impressed with her, even if he probably did not say that famous line.
Early Life
Harriet was born on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut, the seventh child of famed Congregational minister Lyman Beecher and Roxana Foote Beecher.
Religion played a significant role in her family’s life. All seven of her brothers became ministers. The free love suffragist Victoria Woodhull would later very publicly accuse her brother Henry Ward Beecher of adultery. Harriet would also marry a clergyman.
Her older sister, Catherine, became an advocate for women’s education. After their mother died when Harriet was five, Catherine stepped in. Catherine ran Hartford Female Seminary, where Harriet received a more serious education than most women had at the time.
Harriet’s school essays provided an early sign of her writing abilities. She taught at the school from 1829 to 1832. She took part in the school’s campaign against Indian Removal.
The sisters moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, with their father when he accepted the position of president of the prestigious Lane Seminary.
Young Writer
Catherine opened a new school where Harriet continued her teaching career.
Harriet joined an informal writers’ and social club (Semi-Colon Club). Harriet was exposed to a diverse range of people, including immigrants, formerly enslaved people, slave catchers, and notables like Salmon Chase (who became an anti-slavery lawyer and ultimately the Chief Justice of the United States).
Harriet attended Lane Seminary’s debates on slavery (colonization vs. abolition). Her father was concerned about public criticism (antislavery activism sometimes led to violence in the 1830s). He stopped all talk about slavery at the seminary. This led many students to leave the seminary.
Rev. Calvin Ellis Stowe was a widower who taught at Lane Seminary. Calvin and Harriet married in 1836. They would have seven children, five within seven years of their marriage. She helped support their growing family by publishing short stories and running a school in their home.
Harriet would write 30 books, covering a wide range of topics from homemaking to religion in nonfiction, as well as several novels. She published her first book, Primary Geography, in 1833. Few people today remember any of them, except for one.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Her son died in a cholera epidemic that took the lives of thousands of people in her region of the country. Harriet later said the loss of her child gave her empathy for enslaved mothers who had their children seized from them. It helped inspire Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 also angered Harriet. The Stowes provide a safe harbor to fugitive slaves in their home. Her father and brothers also condemned slavery in the pulpit.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was first published in 1851 to 1852 in installments in an antislavery newspaper. It was later printed in book form.
It is a sentimental and moralistic story focused on a saintly slave named Tom (“Uncle Tom” later became a criticism for a subservient black person). His death was akin to martyrdom. Another theme is women’s virtue and maternal love. Eliza escapes slavery with her son, moving to Liberia.
The book discusses the evils of slavery. The villain (Simon Legree) is a Northerner who became a cruel slave driver. Harriet used the sentimental style of the day, which appealed to middle-class and women readers. A modern-day reader might deem it overly dramatic.
Reaction to Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Uncle Tom’s Cabin became a best seller with over 300,000 copies sold. Lord Palmerston, the future British prime minister, read the book three times. It might have helped him decide during the Civil War not to support the Confederacy, which sought British recognition.
The book provided the ordinary person, who often did not have a first-person experience of slavery, a window into the evils of the institution. Harriet toured nationally and internationally to promote her book and support the abolition of slavery. She wrote another book to provide documentary evidence that matched real-life conditions to the events in the novel.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin appealed to the conscience of the average person. Many people did not have deep feelings about slavery. The novel forced them to address it in a personal way.
It greatly angered the Southerners, who accused her of “falsehoods” and being “detestable” and “monstrous.” Southerners wrote novels claiming slaves had better lives than free workers in the North. The response suggests a troubled conscience.
Harriet met President Abraham Lincoln at the White House during the Civil War. Lincoln supposedly said, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war?” The quote was written years later by her son. It is quite likely apocryphal, but it’s a good line!
Harriet’s Later Years
Harriet and her husband moved to Florida in 1866.
She promoted the rights of married women and supported women’s suffrage (her sister Catherine did not, believing women could do the most good in other ways).
They moved to Connecticut in 1873, continuing to spend their summers in Florida (which does not seem ideal to me, but okay). She helped found Hartford Art School, which later became part of the University of Hartford. Her husband died in 1886.
Harriet’s health severely worsened after her husband’s death. She probably suffered from Alzheimer’s. Mark Twain wrote about her “decayed” mind. Beecher Stowe died July 1, 1896.