Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 - July 1, 1896) was an abolitionist, and writer of more than 10 books, the most famous being Uncle Tom's Cabin which describes life in slavery, and which was first published in serial form from 1851 to 1852 in an abolitionist organ, the National Era, edited by Gamaliel Bailey.
Her second novel was Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, another anti-slavery novel.
Born in Litchfield, Connecticut and raised primarily in Hartford, she was the daughter of Lyman Beecher, an abolitionist Congregationalist preacher from Boston, and the sister of renowned minister, Henry Ward Beecher. In 1832, her family moved to Cincinnati, another hotbed of the abolitionist movement, where her father became the first president of Lane Theological Seminary. There she gained first-hand knowledge of slavery and the Underground railroad and was moved to write Uncle Tom's Cabin, the first major American novel with an African-American hero.
In 1836 Harriet Beecher married Calvin E. Stowe, a clergyman and widower. Later she and her husband moved to Bowdoin College, when he obtained an academic position there. Harriet and Calvin had seven children, but some died in early childhood.
Quotation
- When Stowe met Abraham Lincoln in 1862 (during the Civil War), he reportedly greeted her, "So this is the little lady who started this big war."
Partial list of works
Related articles
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