On this date in American literary history – June 14,
1811, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, was born in
Litchfield, Connecticut. She was the seventh child of Congregationalist
minister Lyman Beecher. Stowe studied at private schools in Connecticut and
worked as a teacher in Hartford for five years until her father moved to
Cincinnati in 1832. She accompanied him and continued to teach while writing
stories and essays. In 1836, she married Calvin Ellis Stowe, with whom she had
seven children. She published her first book, Mayflower, in 1843. While living
in Cincinnati, Stowe encountered fugitive slaves and the Underground Railroad.
Later, she wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin in reaction to recently tightened fugitive
laws. The book sold some 300,000 copies and did much to galvanize public
opinion in the North against slavery. Stowe traveled to England in 1853, where
she was welcomed as a literary hero. Along with Ralph Waldo Emerson, she became
one of the original contributors to The Atlantic, which launched in November
1857. Stowe continued to write throughout her life and died on July 1, 1896 in
Hartford, Connecticut.
Michael Thomas Barry is the author of numerous book that
include America’s Literary Legends: The
Lives and Burial Places of 50 Great Writers. The book can be pre-ordered on-line
from Powell’s bookstore through the following link:
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