Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in the early nineteenth century into a prominent New England family. Her father was a Church minister who, at the time of Harriet’s birth, was on his way to becoming one of the nation’s most eminent preachers. Because her mother died when Harriet was only five years old, her father had a great influence on her life. She was encouraged to read from the time she was very young and became a teacher at the age of sixteen, one of the few well-accepted professions for females at the time.

She resided in Cincinnati for twenty years, with a river separating her home from the slave state of Kentucky where she witnessed the harsh brutalities of slavery from her residence and saw some slaves escape by way of the river. She was in constant contact with newspaper articles offering attractive rewards for escaped slaves. One of her first direct contacts with the slave issue was when she was invited for dinner at the elegant Kentucky home of one of her students. After observing the slaves working in the fields all day and seeing how and where the slaves lived, she and her sister found themselves being "entertained" by some of the slaves immediately following dinner. One clear observation she made and later remembered was seeing a young woman who was obviously the offspring of a white man and a black woman and who was considered a slave nonetheless. When it was confirmed that one of her servants, whom she thought was a freed slave, was actually a run-away slave, she requested her husband hide her in a covered wagon and take her to a safer area in order that she not be found and "punished." Harriet Beecher Stowe was a strong advocate in the fight against slavery and shortly after The Fugitive Slave Act was passed, she published a response to the bill, "The Freeman’s Dream: A Parable." In this article she condemned those "who seem to think that there is no standard of right and wrong higher than an act of Congress, or an interpretation of the United States Constitution." (Jakoubek, 19) Because society felt that women writers should maintain the focus of their writings on the family and other "accepted" topics, not controversial subjects such as slavery and debating the Constitution, Harriet Beecher Stowe risked her reputation and later, the safety of her family.

At the age of twenty-five, following the untimely cholera death of her best friend, Eliza Stowe, Harriet found herself spending time with widower Calvin Stowe. They fell in love, seemed to have much in common and married. By the time she was thirty-four, Harriet Beecher Stowe had given birth to six children. The last two births took their toll on her health, requiring months of bed rest to recuperate. Samuel, her sixth child, died from cholera when he was an infant. Calvin Stowe was a very low paid church minister, making barely enough money to maintain a healthy lifestyle for his family. In order to help financially and in order to take advantage of her love of writing, Harriet Beecher Stowe began stealing minutes from her day to pursue the desire to be creative, with most of her publications appearing in local newspapers and magazines. She published anti-slavery articles in The National Era, an anti-slave journal. Her son once commented "her soul was all on fire with indignation at this new indignity and wrong about to be inflicted by the by the slave-power on the innocent and defenseless." (Jakoubek, 17)

While attending a Church service one morning, Harriet had a vision of a slave owner violently beating one of his slaves as a punishment for an ‘offense’ the slave committed. She immediately returned home and began writing a story. She pursued these frequent images and started what was to be the novel that helped open the eyes of the North and one that the South would come to hate. She interviewed freed slaves as well as slaves that had escaped their masters’ plantations. She visited numerous Southern plantations and, although she took no written notes, she committed scenes to her memory and called on them later for her controversial book. "When, in a burst of inspiration, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she did not know that her book would help change the world." (Jakoubek, 12) Her book created severe Southern anger producing threats that included daily hate male postmarked from the South and a small package containing the severed ear of a slave. She had the opportunity to meet with President Abraham Lincoln, when upon meeting her, President Lincoln said, "So this is the little lady who made this great war." (Jakoubek, 80) She was able to enjoy an hour talk with President Lincoln detailing the atrocities of slavery and the injustice to a group of people whose skin was dark.

Because of the tremendous success of Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe became the family breadwinner, taking her family from poverty to a generous quality of life. Her husband accepted his role as ‘Mr. Harriet Beecher Stowe’ with grace and pride, never envious or resentful of his wife’s success. Mrs. Stowe was greatly admired and respected by her colleagues, friends, family and eventually, even the Southerners who had at one time resented her intrusion into their lifestyle. The Stowes lived the last years of their lives together, dividing their time between their home in Florida and one in Hartford, Connecticut where they were neighbors to upcoming literary craftsman Mark Twain. She was at her husband’s side when he passed away and she lived the last few years of her life hoping to see her son, Fred, again. Many years before, Harriet attempted to rescue Fred from his alcoholism and haphazard lifestyle until one day he traveled to San Francisco where he disappeared without a trace to be found. This last dream was unfulfilled.

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote countless poems, newspaper and magazine articles and in addition to her most famous Uncle Tom’s Cabin she wrote thirty-two novels including: A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin which was a defense of her first novel, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, a book she turned into a story of revenge against the Southerners for an attack made against Senator Sumner who was a personal friend of hers, The Minister’s Wooing, which examined the philosophies of Puritanism, Agnes of Sorrento, a romance story set in Italy, The Pearl of Orr’s Island a story of life on the Maine coast, Oldtown Folks an amusing story of New England life based on her husband’s stories about his hometown, and her last novel, Poganuc People which reflected her childhood memories.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin has been analyzed over and over since its initial printing. Some feel it is a racist story and some see it for what they believe Harriet Beecher Stowe intended, an honest reflection as to how the South lived and how their owners treated the slaves. The novel, although at the time initiated many controversies, is still being enjoyed today. Harriet Beecher Stowe is highly regarded in the literary world and although the Civil War was inevitable, she has been somewhat credited for the opposing views both the North and the South experienced.

Hedrick, Joan D., Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. New York: Oxford, 1994.

Jakoubek, Robert E., Harriet Beecher Stowe. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.