Harriet Beecher Stowe

EARLY LIFE 

She was born Harriet Elisabeth Beecher in Litchfield, Connecticut, on June 14, 1811.

Harriet was the seventh child of an Evangelical Protestant clergyman, Lyman Beecher. She grew up in an Connecticut Rectory.

Portrait of Stowe by Alanson Fisher, 1853 

By the age of 6, Harriet could read well and had memorized two long chapters of the Bible.

An avid reader when younger, Harriet especially liked Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, but was forbidden to read profane literature by her father.

Harriet began writing aged 12 as a hobby, mainly tales and sketches. One of her first works was a prize essay on the subject "Can the Immortality of the Soul be Proved by the Light of Nature."

FAMILY 

Harriet's father, Lyman Beecher (October 12, 1775 – January 10, 1863) the most powerful puritan preacher of his generation in the USA. He devoted his later life to preaching to the pioneers in Cincinnati, where he held revival meetings preaching against drunkenness, Catholicism and religious tolerance.

Portrait of Lyman Beecher by James Henry Beard, 1842

Her mother Roxana (Foote) died when Harriet was only five years old. A deeply religious woman, Roxana's last prayer was that her six sons should be called into the ministry.

Harriet's twelve brothers and sisters were all high achievers including Catharine who was a pioneering educator and Henry Ward Beecher who developed into a revered preacher and a stern denouncer of vice and sin.

CAREER 

Harriet enrolled in the Hartford Female Seminary run by her older sister Catharine, then later taught students Latin there herself.

At the age of 21 in 1832 Harriet moved with her father to the rough border town of Cincinnati, Ohio where he had become the president of Lane Theological Seminary. She opened up a school there and also began writing on women issues for female magazines.

A 5,000 square foot house was constructed specifically in 1833 to house the president of the Lane Seminary. Harriet lived there from 1833 until her marriage to Calvin Ellis Stowe in 1836.

It was there she wrote her first book The Mayflower: Sketches of Scenes and Character Among the Descendants of the Pilgrims, which was published in 1834. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati, Ohio. By Photo by Greg Hume 

Due to her husband’s poor health there was little money to pay the bills so Stowe began to write for a weekly anti-slavery journal, The National Era.

The National Era published on June 5, 1851, the first installment of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which became the work for which Harriet Beecher Stowe became known.

It wasn’t until Stowe made a journey to Europe in 1853 after the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin that she realized the length of her new-found fame. In England she met Charles Dickens, Charles Kingsley and John Ruskin in addition to other famous literary figures.

During her tour of Europe, Harriet's husband Calvin Stowe gave public readings of Uncle Tom's Cabin, as part of the abolitionist debate.

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.

Stowe wrote 30 books in total, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters, but none of her other works proved as successful.

MARRIAGE 

After moving to Cincinnati, Harriet joined the Semi-Colon Club, a literary salon and social club. It was there she met the fragile Calvin Stowe, a leading authority on the Bible. She became close friends in Cincinnati with the professor and his wife Eliza.

Eliza died in 1834 and Harriet Beecher married the widowed Calvin Stowe on January 6, 1836. The couple were devoted to each other and supported their partners in their work.

Calvin Stowe had poor health and spent time in a sanatorium, which left him depressed.

Calvin Ellis Stowe, circa 1850

They had seven children, including twin daughters. Tragedy struck when Harriet lost her favorite son, at the age of one and a half to cholera. The other six survived childhood but their eldest son Harry drowned at the close of his freshman year at Dartmouth and their third son Fred was wounded at Gettysburg and was left mentally impaired afterwards.

CHARACTER AND BELIEFS 

The demure Harriet Beecher Stowe had a bright mind with a remarkable memory.

Portrait of Harriet Beecher Stowe by Francis Holl, 1853

Harriet's basic faith was firm but she had many conflicts between faith and doubt after the deaths of two of her children and dealing with her husband’s illness.

Early in her adolescence Harriet experienced a calling to the church but for much of her life she was an uneasy Calvinist until much later in her life when she converted to the Episcopalian church.

While living in Cincinnati in the 1830s, Stowe traveled to Maysville, Kentucky, where she witnessed a slave auction. The distress she felt was one of several experiences that inspired Uncle Tom's Cabin years later.

PERSONAL LIFE 

Harriet wrote hymns including "Still, Still With Thee" after her son Charles died of cholera.

Harriet owned a stray cat called "Calvin" who took over the house and sat on the author's shoulders while she wrote.

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Hartford, Connecticut, was Stowe's home for the last 23 years of her life. In 1872 fellow author Mark Twain moved next door.

LAST YEARS AND DEATH 

Stowe's last years she was confined at home, an invalid. Many historians believe the last ten years of her life, she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.

Harriet Beecher-Stowe,

Harriet Beecher Stowe rewrote Uncle Tom's Cabin when she had dementia in her later years. She imagined that she was engaged in the original composition, and for several hours every day she industriously used pen and paper, inscribing long passages of the book almost exactly word for word. 

After two decades of retirement and a gradual decline to an invalid, Stowe died on July 1, 1896 at her Hartford home. on July 1, 1896.

Harriet Beecher Stowe is buried in the historic cemetery at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.