How Did Harriet Beecher Stoowe Change American History
Harriet Beecher Stowe changed American history with her influential writing about slavery. Stowe felt that it was her purpose in life to be a writer, and that she could change the way that the nation viewed slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the story that Harriet Beecher Stowe is mostly recognized for is a story that portrays the brutal reality of slavery during the 1800’s. Harriet Beecher Stowe was an abolitionist who changed the way that Americans viewed slavery with her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Born in 1811, Stowe was the sixth child born to Rev. Lyman Beecher and Roxanna Foote Beecher who has eleven children in total. The Beecher parents expected their children to be successful, and they all were. All of her brothers became ministers, and her sisters endorsed women’s education and started the National Women’s Suffrage Association. Stowe’s mother died when Harriet was just six …show more content…
years old, and her oldest sister Catharine soon became her maternal figure in life. She started writing at a very early age, and won awards starting at the age of seven. When she became a teacher at Hartford Female Seminary, she spent much of her time writing essays and promoting her career(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center).
Harriet Beecher Stowe married Calvin Stowe, a theology professor from Cincinnati. The couple had seven children, and they lived in Cincinnati until 1850 when Calvin became a professor at Bowdoin University in Brunswick, Maine. Stowe experienced heartbreak when her eighteen month old son died from cholera. She used that experience to inspire part of Uncle Tom’s Cabin later in life(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center).
Stowe's dedication to writing enabled her to share her opinion and to support her family financially.
Her writing was so different from others at the time because it allowed her to be a part of the community when women were not allowed to be public speakers. She wrote over 30 novels, which were published before she got married. Her first book, Primary Geography for Children, was even praised by the local bishop. Although Stowe received fame for her novels, her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was received the best by the public(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center).
One of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s most influential books was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, also known as Life Among the Lowly. A book about the horrors of slavery, the book was targeted at white women in the north. Often noted for its contribution in the abolitionist movement, Uncle Tom’s Cabin brought the reality of slavery to everyone in the country. Uncle Tom’s Cabin started as a series in a weekly newspaper called The National Era. It starred a slave named Tom who experienced an assortment of treatments from his owners(Harriet Beecher Stowe
Center). When Stowe first wrote the series, it did not reach many people because The National Era was not widely circulated. But as readers shared the installments with their friends, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, gained popularity. In March of 1853, a publisher in Boston decided to publish the installments as a book, and it sold one hundred thousand copies in the first week. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was explosive not just in popularity but in it’s impact on the approaching civil war. Some historians cite Uncle Tom’s Cabin as one of the reasons the civil war begun. Legend is that Abraham Lincoln said that, “So this is the little lady who made the big war” when he met her(loc.gov).
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the 1800’s in the midst of the abolitionist movement. When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, Stowe decided to write a statement about how slavery was wrong. Harriet said, “Common sense is seeing things as they are; and doing things as they ought to be”(Womenshistory.com). She thought slavery was wrong, and was writing about the lives of slaves so that she could influence others. Stowe gathered the stories of the slaves she had met, either runaway slaves or freed slaves, and used those experiences to empathize with the north(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center).
During this time, not many people had heard many narratives directly from former slaves because the majority of slaves were illiterate. These slaves would recount their stories to the abolitionists who would write about them. These narratives would give the northern people a sense of the slave community(PBS.org).
Stowe empathized with the idea of children being separated from their mothers throughout the novel. Stowe lost a child as an infant, and it allowed her to feel the heartbreak that mothers felt when they were separated from their children. She incorporated it into her writing by writing about Eliza, a mother who ran away from a plantation to protect her son who was going to be sold(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center). Uncle Tom’s Cabin was received different ways by the public. The southerners who were pro-slavery called it inaccurate and said that Stowe made up illusions of slavery in the South. Stowe soon shut down these people by publishing an annotated bibliography titled The Key To Uncle Tom’s Cabin. These southerners protested the book, and wrote their own books depicting the happy lives of slaves. Stowe was even sent death threats and many Southerners banned the book from being sold(PBS.org).
Others in the north praised Stowe, because she emphasized with the atrocious effects that slavery had in the south. The people in the north were suddenly aware of the reality of slavery to a new level. This book was much more personal than any other story about slavery; it had a bigger effect because of it and furthered the abolitionist movement. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of the major causes of the civil war because it shows the polarization between the abolitionists and the anti-abolitionists(USHistory.org). The liberal abolitionists thought that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was not a strong enough call for the end of slavery, and did not think that it was forceful enough(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center). Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was an abolitionist in the 1800’s who used experiences from her life to inspire others by writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Throughout her life, Stowe met many slaves, and after hearing their stories, was inspired to write a series of stories. Stowe weaved the collection of narratives she gathered from slaves into an anti-slavery novel called Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This book moved many northern abolitionists, and it exposed the reality of slavery. By writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe allowed many people glimpse what slavery was really like, and motivated people to fight for the freedom of slaves.
Born in 1811, Stowe was the sixth child born to Rev. Lyman Beecher and Roxanna Foote Beecher who has eleven children in total. The Beecher parents expected their children to be successful, and they all were. All of her brothers became ministers, and her sisters endorsed women’s education and started the National Women’s Suffrage Association. Stowe’s mother died when Harriet was just six …show more content…
years old, and her oldest sister Catharine soon became her maternal figure in life. She started writing at a very early age, and won awards starting at the age of seven. When she became a teacher at Hartford Female Seminary, she spent much of her time writing essays and promoting her career(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center).
Harriet Beecher Stowe married Calvin Stowe, a theology professor from Cincinnati. The couple had seven children, and they lived in Cincinnati until 1850 when Calvin became a professor at Bowdoin University in Brunswick, Maine. Stowe experienced heartbreak when her eighteen month old son died from cholera. She used that experience to inspire part of Uncle Tom’s Cabin later in life(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center).
Stowe's dedication to writing enabled her to share her opinion and to support her family financially.
Her writing was so different from others at the time because it allowed her to be a part of the community when women were not allowed to be public speakers. She wrote over 30 novels, which were published before she got married. Her first book, Primary Geography for Children, was even praised by the local bishop. Although Stowe received fame for her novels, her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was received the best by the public(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center).
One of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s most influential books was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, also known as Life Among the Lowly. A book about the horrors of slavery, the book was targeted at white women in the north. Often noted for its contribution in the abolitionist movement, Uncle Tom’s Cabin brought the reality of slavery to everyone in the country. Uncle Tom’s Cabin started as a series in a weekly newspaper called The National Era. It starred a slave named Tom who experienced an assortment of treatments from his owners(Harriet Beecher Stowe
Center). When Stowe first wrote the series, it did not reach many people because The National Era was not widely circulated. But as readers shared the installments with their friends, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, gained popularity. In March of 1853, a publisher in Boston decided to publish the installments as a book, and it sold one hundred thousand copies in the first week. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was explosive not just in popularity but in it’s impact on the approaching civil war. Some historians cite Uncle Tom’s Cabin as one of the reasons the civil war begun. Legend is that Abraham Lincoln said that, “So this is the little lady who made the big war” when he met her(loc.gov).
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the 1800’s in the midst of the abolitionist movement. When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, Stowe decided to write a statement about how slavery was wrong. Harriet said, “Common sense is seeing things as they are; and doing things as they ought to be”(Womenshistory.com). She thought slavery was wrong, and was writing about the lives of slaves so that she could influence others. Stowe gathered the stories of the slaves she had met, either runaway slaves or freed slaves, and used those experiences to empathize with the north(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center).
During this time, not many people had heard many narratives directly from former slaves because the majority of slaves were illiterate. These slaves would recount their stories to the abolitionists who would write about them. These narratives would give the northern people a sense of the slave community(PBS.org).
Stowe empathized with the idea of children being separated from their mothers throughout the novel. Stowe lost a child as an infant, and it allowed her to feel the heartbreak that mothers felt when they were separated from their children. She incorporated it into her writing by writing about Eliza, a mother who ran away from a plantation to protect her son who was going to be sold(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center). Uncle Tom’s Cabin was received different ways by the public. The southerners who were pro-slavery called it inaccurate and said that Stowe made up illusions of slavery in the South. Stowe soon shut down these people by publishing an annotated bibliography titled The Key To Uncle Tom’s Cabin. These southerners protested the book, and wrote their own books depicting the happy lives of slaves. Stowe was even sent death threats and many Southerners banned the book from being sold(PBS.org).
Others in the north praised Stowe, because she emphasized with the atrocious effects that slavery had in the south. The people in the north were suddenly aware of the reality of slavery to a new level. This book was much more personal than any other story about slavery; it had a bigger effect because of it and furthered the abolitionist movement. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of the major causes of the civil war because it shows the polarization between the abolitionists and the anti-abolitionists(USHistory.org). The liberal abolitionists thought that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was not a strong enough call for the end of slavery, and did not think that it was forceful enough(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center). Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was an abolitionist in the 1800’s who used experiences from her life to inspire others by writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Throughout her life, Stowe met many slaves, and after hearing their stories, was inspired to write a series of stories. Stowe weaved the collection of narratives she gathered from slaves into an anti-slavery novel called Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This book moved many northern abolitionists, and it exposed the reality of slavery. By writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe allowed many people glimpse what slavery was really like, and motivated people to fight for the freedom of slaves.