Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe
Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, became the single most important piece of antislavery literature in American history. Readers all across the North were captivated by it. The novel sold three hundred thousand copies the first year following its publication, and went on to sell over two million copies in the next ten years. Harriet's work was so popular that it became the best-selling book ever. More importantly, the book raised people's awareness of the terrible injustice of slavery. It convinced countless Northerners to join the abolitionist movement. Some historians claim, that by making people in the North less willing to compromise on the issue of slavery, it helped cause the Civil War. In fact, President Abraham Lincoln once called Harriet Beecher Stowe "The little lady who wrote the book that made this big war." Harriet was born on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut. She was the seventh of thirteen children; eleven of whom survived childhood. Harriet was born to a fiery Puritan minister, Lyman Beecher and her mother; Roxanna Foote Beecher was a gentle and well-educated woman. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she was four years old. Harriet, known to her family and friends as Hatty,
She continued to write in the years following the war, but she concentrated on less controversial themes. "She hoped that her book would show people the true evil of slavery and inspire them to take action against it. Cincinnati was a booming frontier town just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, a state that allowed slavery. "My object will be to hold up (slavery) in the most lifelike and graphic manner possible. She loved to read and became a very good student. The following year, the Civil War ended in a victory for the North. Most people in the South were highly critical of the book. In 1850, Stowe and her husband moved to Brunswick, Maine. She began working on a novel at night, when her children were asleep. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act convinced Harriet that she had to do something to help end slavery. Shortly afterward, she suffered a stroke and grew weak. She traveled around Europe, where she was entertained by royalty. Another important influence was her older sister, Catherine Beecher, who helped raise her after their mother died. She often spoke with her father's colleagues who allowed fugitive slaves to stay in his home. "She received many obscene or threatening letters, including one that contained a black person's ear.
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Acceptance Essays
