Harriet Beecher Stowe
-Helped people, including her servant, escape through the Underground Railroad
-Published Uncle Tom's Cabin
-Went on speaking tours to promote her progressive ideals
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Image is from Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Mini Bio:
-Married Calvin Stowe in 1836
-Family was strongly opposed to slavery
-Born June 14, 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut as the 6th of 11 children
-Father was a renowned preacher
-Student (and later, teacher) at Hartford Female Seminary
-President of the Lane Theological Seminary
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Why Harriet Got Involved
-Originally published in 1852 in the paper National Era through multiple installments
-Later published as a book
-Book is about the horrifying suffering and oppression that slave families faced
-Her sister-in-law challenged her to "write something that would make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is!"
-The book has been said to have helped bring about the American Civil War because it enraged people in the North and helped them rally against slavery.
- The Beecher children were taught and raised to change the world. - She lived right across a slave-holding community, and she learned a lot from talking with the fugitive slaves.
- One of Stowe's sons died of cholera.
- She later cited this event as an inspiration for Uncle Tom's Cabin because it helped her better understand the pain of mothers whose sons were taken away from them through slavery.
- She was a Christian, and it was her duty to help everyone she could.
Retrieved from flickr, image by moosevlt
Retrieved a camera picture from Billy Hathorn at the National Portrait Gallery