Harriet Beecher Stowe Report

A Lasting Legacy

It was a dark, icy evening. A wind swept over a slight, yet determined woman as she walked the cobblestone street. She had a premonition as she clutched her shawl tighter to her small frame. Harriet gazed around, looking every way and jumped as a scuffle ensued ahead. Her sharp eyes caught sight of two men, a slave woman, and her baby. One of the men lashed at the mother who screamed, falling on the muck –covered street. The mother’s pitiful face showed the anguish in her heart as she laid eyes on her infant son for the last time. Harriet Beecher Stowe, eyes brimming with tears, turned away from the sorrowful sight; she was grieved by her sense of helplessness to ease this mother’s loss. Scenes like this spurred Harriet to write her most famous novel.

“I do not mean to live in vain!” (“Stowe’s Hartford Neighborhood, Nook Farm”). These heroic words were spoken by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Harriet was born on June 14, 1811, and, through a lifetime of writing, would leave a lasting legacy through her bravery and sacrifice.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an inspiring figure in our country’s history. She was born to a preacher, who was opposed to slavery. Harriet had ten siblings, and, because she was only four when her mother died, she lamented miserably. Two years later, her father married Harriet Foote; this new mother brought life and happiness into the houseful of Beecher children. While Harriet published articles in numerous magazines, she was unknowingly paving the way for her first novel which would change history. Harriet had a humble view of her own abilities. She described herself as “a little bit of a woman, about as thin and dry as a pinch of snuff,” yet she demonstrated remarkable faith and courage (Hakim 23). Harriet married Calvin Stowe, with whom she had seven children. Only three children survived, leaving Harriet with more sensitivity and empathy toward the slave mothers, who were often deprived of their children. The Stowe family settled in Cincinnati, where Harriet observed both sides of the slavery issue. Hakim writes:

In New England, slavery had seemed far away. Now it was close by. Ohio was a free state: there was no slavery there. But Kentucky, just across the Ohio River, was a slave state…One day [Harriet] saw a baby pulled from its chained mother’s arms. She saw a look of anguish on the mother’s face. She never forgot that look (24).

Harriet’s abolitionist upbringing and her passion for words prepared her for writing one of the most influential novels of all time.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was a talented writer and an avid sympathizer with the slaves. Her sister-in-law suggested in a letter to Harriet: “…if I could use a pen as you can, Hatty, I would write something that would make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is,” and, moved by this letter, Stowe grew even more earnest in her desire to help the slaves (“Beecher Family”). Harriet, who was altruistic and compassionate towards slaves, risked much to assist a woman who was imperiled and endangered as a runaway. Harriet declared, “…the enslaving of the African race is a clear violation of the great law which commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves,” and she staunchly harbored these stoic runaways (“Background: Harriet Beecher Stowe and Slavery”). Harriet, who was bursting with her emotions about slavery, took her sister-in-law’s advice and penned the novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, stating, “I wrote what I did because as a woman, as a mother, I was oppressed and broken-hearted with the… injustice I saw, because as a Christian I felt the dishonor to Christianity-because as a lover of my country I trembled at the coming day of wrath” (“The Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin”). The book was a best seller all over the world, but it aroused the anger of many critics. This perspective is shown in these words of a fictional character in Henty’s novel, With Lee in Virginia:

There have been many atrocities perpetrated by brutes…but to collect a series of such atrocities, to string them together into a story and hold them up, as Mrs. Beecher Stowe has, as a picture of slave-life in the Southern States is as gross a libel as if anyone [made] a collection of all the assaults of…English ruffians… [and] published them as a picture of the average life of English people (31).

In the book, the many ‘atrocities’ are undeniable, such as the separation of mothers from their babies. However, Stowe tried to portray both the Northern and the Southern perspectives fairly. As Stowe states: “…the country will have reason to tremble, when it remembers that [the] fate of the nations is in the hand of the One who is very pitiful and of tender compassion” (Uncle Tom’s Cabin 318). President Lincoln met Stowe later in life and jokingly remarked, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!” (“Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896”). Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an honest portrayal of slavery, coming from a truthful woman.

The challenges of Harriet’s childhood and the influence of her family equipped her to write a powerful story. This humble little woman had a warm, loving, motherly heart, and a brilliant mind, which challenged people’s views on slavery. Through Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet left a legacy that would change the course of history and continue in our hearts forever.

Works Cited

Hakim, Joy. War Terrible War. New York: University Press Inc, 2005. Print.

“Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896.” americancivilwar.com Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Henty, George. With Lee in Virginia. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1897

“Stowe’s Life.” Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 2008. Harrietbeecherstowecenter.org Web. 24

Jan. 2012.