Editing Harriet Beecher Stowe (section)

==Life and work==
Harriet Elisabeth Beecher was born in [[Litchfield, Connecticut]], on June 14, 1811.<ref name="ReferenceA">McFarland, Philip. ''Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe''. New York: Grove Press, 2007: 112. {{ISBN|978-0-8021-4390-7}}.</ref> She was the sixth of 11 children{{Sfn|Hedrick|1994|p=6}} born to outspoken [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] preacher [[Lyman Beecher]]. Her mother was his first wife, Roxana (Foote), a deeply religious woman who died when Stowe was only five years old. Roxana's maternal grandfather was General Andrew Ward of the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}} Harriet's siblings included a sister, [[Catharine Beecher]], who became an educator and author, as well as brothers who became ministers, including [[Henry Ward Beecher]], who became a famous preacher and abolitionist, [[Charles Beecher]], and [[Edward Beecher]].<ref>Applegate, Debby (2006). ''The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher''. Doubleday Religious Publishing Group. {{ISBN|978-0-307-42400-6}}.</ref>

Harriet enrolled in the [[Hartford Female Seminary]] run by her older sister Catharine, where she received a traditional academic education&nbsp;– rather uncommon for women at the time&nbsp;– with a focus in the [[classics]], languages, and mathematics. Among her classmates was Sarah P. Willis, who later wrote under the pseudonym [[Fanny Fern]].<ref>Warren, Joyce W. ''Fanny Fern: An Independent Woman''. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992: 21. {{ISBN|0-8135-1763-X}}.</ref>

In 1832, at the age of 21, Harriet Beecher moved to [[Cincinnati, Ohio]], to join her father, who had become the president of [[Lane Seminary|Lane Theological Seminary]]. There, she also joined the [[Semi-Colon Club]], a literary salon and social club whose members included the Beecher sisters, [[Caroline Lee Hentz]], [[Salmon P. Chase]] (future governor of Ohio and [[United States Secretary of the Treasury]] under President [[Abraham Lincoln]]), [[Emily Blackwell]], and others.<ref name="tonk">Tonkovic, Nicole. ''Domesticity with a Difference: The Nonfiction of Catharine Beecher, Sarah J. Hale, Fanny Fern, and Margaret Fuller''. University Press of Mississippi, 1997: 12. {{ISBN|0-87805-993-8}}.</ref> Cincinnati's trade and shipping business on the [[Ohio River]] was booming, drawing numerous migrants from different parts of the country, including many [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|escaped slaves]], bounty hunters seeking them, and Irish immigrants who worked on the state's canals and railroads. In 1829, [[Cincinnati riots of 1829|the ethnic Irish attacked blacks]], wrecking areas of the city, trying to push out these competitors for jobs. Beecher met a number of African Americans who had suffered in those attacks, and their experience contributed to her later writing about slavery. Riots took place again [[Cincinnati riots of 1836|in 1836]] and [[Cincinnati riots of 1841|1841]], driven also by [[Nativism (politics)#United States|native-born]] anti-abolitionists.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

Harriet was also influenced by the [[Lane Seminary#The slavery debates|Lane Debates on Slavery]]. The biggest event ever to take place at Lane, it was the series of debates held on 18 days in February 1834, between [[American Colonization Society|colonization]] and abolition defenders, decisively won by [[Theodore Dwight Weld|Theodore Weld]] and other abolitionists. Elisabeth attended most of the debates.<ref name=Williams>{{cite book
|title=Prudence Crandall's legacy: the fight for equality in the 1830s, Dred Scott, and Brown v. Board of Education
|first=Donald E.
|last=Williams Jr.
|location=[[Middletown, Connecticut]]
|publisher=[[Wesleyan University Press]]
|year=2014
|isbn=978-0-8195-7470-1}}</ref>{{rp|171}} Her father and the trustees, afraid of more violence from anti-abolitionist whites, prohibited any further discussions of the topic. The result was a [[Lane Seminary#The "Lane Rebels" resign|mass exodus of the Lane students]], together with a supportive trustee and a professor, who moved as a group to the new [[Oberlin College|Oberlin Collegiate Institute]] after its trustees agreed, by a close and acrimonious vote, to accept students regardless of "race", and to allow discussions of any topic.

It was in the literary club at Lane that she met Rev. [[Calvin Ellis Stowe]], a widower who was a professor of Biblical Literature at the seminary.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Lane Seminary
|newspaper=Vermont Chronicle |location=[[Bellows Falls, Vermont]]
|date=September 7, 1832
|page=3
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38194559/appointment_of_rev_calvin_stowe_to_lane/
|via=[[newspapers.com]]}}</ref> The two married at the Seminary on January 6, 1836.<ref>McFarland, Philip. ''Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe''. New York: Grove Press, 2007: 21. {{ISBN|978-0-8021-4390-7}}</ref> The Stowes had seven children, including twin daughters.<ref>{{cite web |title=Family |url=https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/harriet-beecher-stowe/family/ |access-date=June 4, 2024 |publisher=The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center}}</ref>

===''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' and Civil War===
[[File:Alanson Fisher - Harriet Beecher Stowe - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of Stowe by Alanson Fisher, 1853 ([[National Portrait Gallery (United States)|National Portrait Gallery]])]]

The [[31st United States Congress|Congress]] passed the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]], prohibiting assistance to fugitives and strengthening sanctions even in free states. At the time, Stowe had moved with her family to [[Brunswick, Maine]], where her husband was now teaching at [[Bowdoin College]]. Their [[Harriet Beecher Stowe House (Brunswick, Maine)|home]] near the campus is now protected as a National Historic Landmark.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bowdoin.edu/stowe-house/|title=Harriet Beecher Stowe House|website=www.bowdoin.edu|language=en|access-date=September 24, 2018}}</ref> The Stowes were ardent critics of slavery and supported the [[Underground Railroad]], temporarily housing several fugitive slaves in their home. One fugitive from slavery, [[John Andrew Jackson]], wrote of hiding with Stowe in her house in Brunswick as he fled to Canada in his narrative titled ''The Experience of a Slave in South Carolina'' (London: Passmore & Albaster, 1862).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ashton |first1=Susanna |title=The Genuine Article: Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Andrew Jackson |url=http://commonplace.online/article/genuine-article/ |website=Commonplace: A Journal of Early American Life |access-date=November 14, 2020}}</ref>

Stowe claimed to have had a vision of a dying slave during a communion service at Brunswick's First Parish Church, which inspired her to write his story.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of the First Parish Church in Brunswick, Maine |last=Ashby |first=Thompson Eldridge and Louise R. Helmreich|publisher=J.H. French |year=1969|location=Brunswick, Maine |pages=229}}</ref> What also likely allowed her to empathize with slaves was the loss of her eighteen-month-old son, Samuel Charles Stowe. She noted, "Having experienced losing someone so close to me, I can sympathize with all the poor, powerless slaves at the unjust auctions. You will always be in my heart Samuel Charles Stowe."<ref>Gershon, Noel (1976). ''Harriet Beecher Stowe: Biography''. New York: Henry Holt and Co.{{Page needed|date=June 2019}}</ref> On March 9, 1850, Stowe wrote to [[Gamaliel Bailey]], editor of the weekly anti-slavery journal ''[[The National Era]]'', that she planned to write a story about the problem of slavery: "I feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak&nbsp;... I hope every woman who can write will not be silent."{{Sfn|Hedrick|1994|p=208}}

[[File:Portrait of Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852. (21452599131) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Daguerreotype portrait of Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852]]

Shortly after in June 1851, when she was 40, the first installment of ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' was published in serial form in the newspaper ''The National Era''. She originally used the subtitle "The Man That Was a Thing", but it was soon changed to "Life Among the Lowly".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Installments were published weekly from June 5, 1851, to April 1, 1852.{{Sfn|Hedrick|1994|p=208}} For the newspaper serialization of her novel, Stowe was paid $400.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lyons|first=Martyn|title=Books: A Living History|year=2011|publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum|location=Los Angeles |page=143}}</ref> ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' was published in book form on March 20, 1852, by John P. Jewett with an initial print run of 5,000 copies.<ref>McFarland, Philip. ''Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe''. New York: Grove Press, 2007: 80–81. {{ISBN|978-0-8021-4390-7}}.</ref> Each of its two volumes included three illustrations and a title-page designed by [[Hammatt Billings]].<ref>Parfait, Claire. ''The Publishing History of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852–2002''. Ashgate Publishing, 2007: 71–72. {{ISBN|978-0-7546-5514-5}}.</ref> In less than a year, the book sold an unprecedented 300,000 copies.<ref>Morgan, Jo-Ann. ''Uncle Tom's Cabin As Visual Culture''. University of Missouri Press, 2007: 136–137. {{ISBN|978-0-8262-1715-8}}</ref> By December, as sales began to wane, Jewett issued an inexpensive edition at {{Frac|37|1|2}} cents each to stimulate sales.<ref>Parfait, Claire. ''The Publishing History of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852–2002''. Ashgate Publishing, 2007: 78. {{ISBN|978-0-7546-5514-5}}.</ref> Sales abroad, as in Britain where the book was a great success, earned Stowe nothing as there was no international copyright agreement in place during that era.<ref>Lyons, Martyn. ''Books: A Living History''. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011. Chapter 4, p. 143.</ref> In 1853, Stowe undertook a lecture tour of Britain and, to make up the royalties that she could not receive there, the Glasgow New Association for the Abolition of Slavery set up Uncle Tom's Offering.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mullen, Stephen.|title=It wisnae us: the truth about Glasgow and slavery|date=2009|publisher=Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland|others=Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. Glasgow Anti Racist Alliance.|isbn=978-1-873190-62-3|location=Edinburgh|pages=75|oclc=551393830}}</ref>

According to Daniel R. Vollaro, the goal of the book was to educate Northerners on the realistic horrors of the things that were happening in the South. The other purpose was to try to make people in the South feel more empathetic towards the people they were forcing into slavery.<ref>Vollaro, Daniel R. "Lincoln, Stowe, and the 'Little Woman/Great War' Story: The Making, And Breaking, Of A Great American Anecdote". ''Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association'' 30.1 (2015).</ref> The book's emotional portrayal of the effects of slavery on individuals captured the nation's attention. Stowe showed that slavery touched all of society, beyond the people directly involved as masters, traders and slaves. Her novel added to the debate about abolition and slavery, and aroused opposition in the South. In the South, Stowe was depicted as out of touch, arrogant, and guilty of slander. Within a year, 300 babies in Boston alone were named [[Uncle Tom's Cabin#Eva|Eva (one of the book's characters)]], and a play based on the book opened in New York in November.<ref>Morgan, Jo-Ann. ''Uncle Tom's Cabin As Visual Culture''. University of Missouri Press, 2007: 137. {{ISBN|978-0-8262-1715-8}}</ref> Southerners quickly responded with numerous works of what are now called [[Anti-Tom literature|anti-Tom novels]], seeking to portray Southern society and slavery in more positive terms. Many of these were bestsellers, although none matched the popularity of Stowe's work, which set publishing records.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

After the start of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], Stowe traveled to the capital, Washington, D.C., where she met President Abraham Lincoln on November 25, 1862.<ref>McFarland, Philip. ''Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe''. New York: Grove Press, 2007: 163. {{ISBN|978-0-8021-4390-7}}</ref> Stowe's daughter, Hattie, reported, "It was a very droll time that we had at the White house I assure you&nbsp;... I will only say now that it was all very funny&nbsp;– and we were ready to explode with laughter all the while."{{sfn|Hedrick|1994|p=306}} What Lincoln said is a minor mystery. Her son later reported that Lincoln greeted her by saying, "so you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war",<ref>{{cite book|author1=David B. Sachsman|author2=S. Kittrell Rushing|author3=Roy Morris|title=Memory and Myth: The Civil War in Fiction and Film from Uncle Tom's Cabin to Cold Mountain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bTSEuddLtlUC&pg=PA8|year=2007|publisher=Purdue University Press|page=8|isbn=978-1-55753-439-2}}</ref> but this story has been found to be apocryphal.<ref>Vollaro, Daniel R. "Lincoln, Stowe, and the 'Little Woman/Great War' Story: The Making, And Breaking, Of A Great American Anecdote". ''Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association'' 30.1 (2015).</ref> Her own accounts are vague, including the letter reporting the meeting to her husband: "I had a real funny interview with the President."{{sfn|Hedrick|1994|p=306}}

===Later years===
Stowe purchased property in [[Mandarin (Jacksonville)|Mandarin]] near [[Jacksonville, Florida]]. In response to a newspaper article in 1873, she wrote, "I came to Florida the year after the war and held property in [[Duval County, Florida|Duval County]] ever since. In all this time I have not received even an incivility from any native Floridian."<ref>Mandarin Musical Society, "Harriet Beecher Stowe," http://www.mandarinmuseum.net/harriet-beecher-stowe</ref>

Stowe is controversial for her support of [[Elizabeth Campbell, Duchess of Argyll]], whose grandfather had been a primary enforcer of the [[Highland Clearances]], the transformation of the remote Highlands of Scotland from a militia-based society to an agricultural one that supported far fewer people. The newly homeless moved to Canada, where very bitter accounts appeared. It was Stowe's assignment to refute them using evidence the Duchess provided, in Letter XVII Volume 1 of her travel memoir ''Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Harriet Beecher Stowe|title=Sunny memories of foreign lands|publisher=Phillips, Sampson, and Company|url=https://archive.org/details/sunnymemoriesoff01stow_0|year=1854|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sunnymemoriesoff01stow_0/page/301 301]–313}}</ref> Stowe was criticized for her seeming defense of the clearances.<ref>For a hostile account see Judie Newman, "Stowe's sunny memories of Highland slavery." in {{cite book|editor-first1=Janet |editor-last1=Beer |editor-first2=Bridget |editor-last2=Bennett |title=Special Relationships: Anglo-American Affinities and Antagonisms 1854–1936|url=http://www.oapen.org/download?type=document&collection=oapen&docid=341374#page=28|year=2002|publisher=Manchester University Press|pages=28–41}}</ref>

In 1868, Stowe became one of the first editors of ''[[Hearth and Home]]'' magazine, one of several new publications appealing to women; she departed after a year.<ref name="mott">Mott, Frank Luther. ''A History of American Magazine, 1865–1885'', p. 99 (1938)</ref> Stowe campaigned for the expansion of married women's rights, arguing in 1869 that:<ref>{{cite book|last=Homestead|first=Melissa J.|title=American Women Authors and Literary Property, 1822–1869 |year=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=NY|pages=29|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=36L3XxeevSEC&pg=PA29|isbn=978-1-139-44689-1}}</ref>

{{blockquote|[T]he position of a married woman&nbsp;... is, in many respects, precisely similar to that of the negro slave. She can make no contract and hold no property; whatever she inherits or earns becomes at that moment the property of her husband&nbsp;... Though he acquired a fortune through her, or though she earned a fortune through her talents, he is the sole master of it, and she cannot draw a penny&nbsp;... [I]n the English [[common law]] a married woman is nothing at all. She passes out of legal existence.}}

In the 1870s, Stowe's brother [[Henry Ward Beecher]] was accused of adultery, and became the subject of a national scandal. Unable to bear the public attacks on her brother, Stowe again fled to Florida but asked family members to send her newspaper reports.<ref>Applegate, Debby. ''The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher''. New York: Three Leaves Press, 2006: 444. {{ISBN|978-0-385-51397-5}}</ref> Through the affair, she remained loyal to her brother and believed he was innocent.<ref>McFarland, Philip. ''Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe''. New York: Grove Press, 2007: 270. {{ISBN|978-0-8021-4390-7}}</ref>

After her return to Connecticut, Mrs. Stowe was among the founders of the Hartford Art School, which later became part of the [[University of Hartford]].

Following the death of her husband, Calvin Stowe, in 1886, Harriet started rapidly to decline in health. By 1888, ''[[The Washington Post]]'' reported that as a result of dementia the 77-year-old Stowe started writing ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' over again. She imagined that she was engaged in the original composition, and for several hours every day she industriously used pen and paper, inscribing passages of the book almost exactly word for word. This was done unconsciously from memory, the author imagining that she composed the matter as she went along. To her diseased mind the story was brand new, and she frequently exhausted herself with labor that she regarded as freshly created.<ref>[http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=utc/responses/articles/n2ar19cm.xml&chunk.id=d12131e91&toc.depth=1&brand=default "Rewriting Uncle Tom"] Retrieved September 6, 2013.</ref>

[[Mark Twain]], a neighbor of Stowe's in Hartford, recalled her last years in the following passage of his autobiography:
<blockquote>Her mind had decayed, and she was a pathetic figure. She wandered about all the day long in the care of a muscular Irish woman. Among the colonists of our neighborhood the doors always stood open in pleasant weather. Mrs. Stowe entered them at her own free will, and as she was always softly slippered and generally full of animal spirits, she was able to deal in surprises, and she liked to do it. She would slip up behind a person who was deep in dreams and musings and fetch a war whoop that would jump that person out of his clothes.  And she had other moods. Sometimes we would hear gentle music in the drawing-room and would find her there at the piano singing ancient and melancholy songs with infinitely touching effect.<ref>{{cite book |title=Autobiography of Mark Twain: Volume 1 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Harriet Elinor |year=2010 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofm00twai_0/page/438 438–39] |isbn=978-0-520-26719-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofm00twai_0/page/438 }}</ref></blockquote>

Modern researchers now speculate that at the end of her life she was suffering from [[Alzheimer's disease]].{{sfn|Hedrick|1994|p=384}}{{Failed verification|date=January 2025|reason=Page 384 does not contain this information.}}

[[File:Stowe, Harriet Beecher grave.jpg|thumb|Harriet Beecher Stowe grave]]
Harriet Beecher Stowe died on July 1, 1896, in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], 17 days after her 85th birthday.
She is buried in the historic cemetery at [[Phillips Academy]] in [[Andover, Massachusetts]],<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 45342). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref> along with her husband and their son Henry Ellis.