WOMEN IN HISTORY - Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin

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Source: Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia Vol 1, Compton (1928) © www.arttoday.com

DATE OF BIRTH

June 14, 1811

DATE OF DEATH

July 1, 1896

PLACE OF BIRTH

Litchfield, Connecticut

PLACE OF DEATH

Hartford, Connecticut

FAMILY BACKGROUND

Harriet was the seventh child of Roxana and Lyman Beecher, a famous Congregationalist minister. Her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, became a renowned preacher and leader of the abolitionist movement. Her sister Catherine was instrumental in furthering educational opportunities for women. She married the widower Calvin Stowe in 1836; they had seven children.

EDUCATION

Educated at and subsequently taught at the Hartford Female Academy, founded by her sister Catherine Beecher in 1823. She also taught at the Western Female Institute in Cincinnati, established by Catherine in 1832.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Her most famous work was Uncle Tom's Cabin, which she wrote in 1850. The book opened up the realities of slavery to the entire world. It became a best seller which has never been out of print.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• The Limits of Sisterhood: The Beecher Sisters on Women's Rights and Women's Sphere by Jeanne Boydston, Mary Kelley, Anne Margolis (1988).
• Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life by Joan Hedrick (1993)

WEBSITES

• Harriet Beecher Stowe - A Celebrarion of Women Writers
• The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center - The Harriet Beecher Stowe House and Stowe-Day Library
• Harriet Beecher Stowe - Ohioana Library
• Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture
  Harriet Beecher Stowe - National Women's Hall of Fame
• Uncle Tom's Cabin - Project Gutenberg Electronic Text
• The New American Housekeeper's Manual by Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe