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Harriet Beecher Stowe (born Harriet Elisabeth Beecher) was born the sixth of what would come to be eleven children, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was a famed Congregational minister.
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Harriet’s mother, Roxana Ward Beecher, dies when she is only five years old. Although her father remarries, the main female influence in Harriet’s life is her older sister, Catharine Beecher.
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Young Harriet Beecher begins her formal education at the age of eight, attending the Litchfield Female Academy. This is what prepares her to later attend her sister's school.
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This school, founded by Harriet's older sister Catharine, was important because it offered many of the courses that men had the opportunity to take, which was revolutionary considering the time period. It is said that this school is where Harriet learned most of her writing skills which allowed her to create her books.
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Harriet Beecher teaches at Hartford Female Seminary, which was founded by her sister, Catharine, from 1839 to 1832.
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Harriet moves to Ohio at the age of twenty-one when her father, Lyman, gets a job as President of Lane Theological Seminary. This is where Harriet first meets reformers and abolitionists.
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Somewhat unknown, this book made it easy for Children to understand Catholicism and impressed Harriet's bishop. This book was published in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1833, and was contributed to by Catharine Esther as well.
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Harriet meets seminary teacher Calvin Ellis Stowe at a local literary association called the "Semi-Colon Club". Harriet describes Calvin as, " “rich in Greek & Hebrew, Latin & Arabic, & alas! rich in nothing else…”. In 1850, they move to a cottage in Brunswick, Maine, near Bowdoin College.
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In the summer of 1849, Harriet's 18-month-old son, Samuel Charles Stowe, dies of Cholera. Harriet later said, "the loss of her child inspired great empathy for enslaved mothers who had their children sold away from them". Harriet was also angered by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which inspired her to write one of her most famous books.
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Remembered as Stowe's most famous work, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was the first book to ever show what it was like being enslaved, and in turn, gave many people a new outlook on the issue of slavery itself. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln once said to Stowe, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war". Filled with more than 40 chapters, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" sold 10,000 copies in its first week in the United States, and 300,000 in the first year.
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Originally, when Stowe's most famous book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was published, along with the fame came lots of hate and doubt. In response to the negative feedback (coming from the South), Stowe published another book, "The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin". This book showed all of the documents and primary resources that Stowe used to write her book and proved that it was not fictional.
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Stowe dies in 1896 while summering in Florida.
