Harriet Beecher Stowe: Pioneering American Author and Abolitionist - Research Paper

Introduction

Harriet Beecher Stowe is an American author and abolitionist. Stowe was born on 14th June 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut, by Roxan Foote and Lyman Beecher (Morgan 162). Her father was a clergyman who was among the most famous evangelists in the Pre-Civil War period. Lyman Beecher had the enthusiasm of molding the American culture through his sermons. Stowe's mum came from a novel-reading and Episcopalian family; however, she was passionate about executing portraits and paintings on ivory. Unfortunately, her mother died when Stowe was about five years old (Morgan 162). Although Stowe's dad remarried after her mother's death Catherine Beecher, her elder sister, became her role model who had a significant influence on her life. Stowe's siblings, Edward Beecher and Charles Beecher, were also notable abolitionists and preachers. However, Catherine, who was an author and educator, mentoring Stowe to be a famous author and abolitionist.

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Stowe enrolled in the Hartford Female Seminary that was administered by Catherine. At the institution, she acquired informal education that was mostly reserved for her male counterparts during the Pre-Civil War period. Stowe was passionate about classics, especially mathematics and languages. In 1832, Stowe migrated to Cincinnati, Ohio, to join her father's at the Lane Theological Seminary (Morgan 163). She later joined the Semi-Colon Club, which was a social club and literary salon, and got to interact with notable personalities such as Emily Blackwell, Salmon Chase, and Caroline Lee Hentz. Cincinnati's shipping and trading business were thriving, attracting several migrants from various regions in the U.S, including Irish immigrants and escaped slaves. However, the 1829 Cincinnati Riots had led to ethnic clashes between blacks and Irish who were scrambling for the railroad and canal jobs (Reif and Wagenknecht 104). The racialized war was meant to expel competitors form the city to mitigate competition for limited jobs. Nonetheless, the riots reoccurred in 1836 and 1841, although they were perpetrated by native anti-abolitionists (Reif and Wagenknecht 104). Stowe's interaction with several African American victims and their experience inspired her to write about slavery.

A series of debates between abolition and colonization defenders depicts one of the most famous events that occurred at Lane. Theodore Weld and other abolitionists won the February 1834 debates that Stowe had attended (Buell and Mair 557). However, the trustees of the 18 days debate prohibited further discussions on the contentious issues due to their anxiety that anti-abolitionist whites could retaliate at the abolitionists. Consequently, a supportive professor and many Lane students transferred to Oberlin Collegiate Institute after the institution accepted learners regardless of their race and to support the colonization versus abolition debate. Mrs. Stowe's affiliation to the literary club led to her meeting Rev. Calvin Ellis Stowe, a Biblical Literature tutor at the seminary, and on 6th January 1836, the duo married (Morgan 163). The couple had seven children. Mr. Stowe was a devoted slavery critic who supported the Underground Railroad initiative that catered to the housing needs of various fugitive slaves. However, the shelters served as a temporary shelter before they traveled to Canada to secure their freedom.

The Civil War and Uncle Tom's Cabin

In 850, the Congress endorsed the Fugitive Slave Law that increased sanctions in liberal states and prohibited sympathizers from assisting fugitive slaves. During that period, the couple had migrated to Brunswick, Maine, since Mr. Stowe was tutoring at Bowdoin College. Their residence was protected under the National Historic Landmark guidelines due to its proximity to the institution. The death of Mrs. Stowe's 18 months old infant evoked her sympathy for the powerless and power slaves that were being auctioned. On 9th March 1850, Mrs. Stowe notified The National Era's editor, Gamaliel Bailey, her intention to write an article on slavery issues (Friedel and Scott 123). According to Friedel and Scott, Mrs. Stowe expressed her view that it was the right time for children and women to advocated for humanity and freedom. She urged other literate women to articulate their grievances on the polemical issue rather than remaining silent (123). In June 1851, Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin book was published as a serial article in The National Era newspaper. However, the initial subtitles of the series were "The Man That Was a Thing," then it was altered to "Life among the Lowly." The newspaper serialized the novel between 5th June 1851 and 1st April 1852, and she was given a net pay of $400 by The National Era (Fought 449). However, on 20th March 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin was published, and John Jewett was granted permission to publish the first 5,000 copies (Morgan 164). Within a year, about 300,000 copies had been sold, and once the sale began to reduce, Jewett published a relatively cheaper copy of the book to boost sales.

Mrs. Stowe's main goal was to use Uncle Tom's Cabin to enlighten the Northerners on the grim horrors that salves experienced in the Southern States. Besides, she expected that her novel could evoke empathy among the Southern slave owners to foster liberal views towards slavery. The novel's emotional accounts on the adverse impacts that slavery had on the Blacks attracted national attention. She had attained her expectation of stimulating a humane societal reaction beyond the primary audience that comprised of slaves, traders, and masters. The novel fueled the slavery and abolition debate in the USA and led to the rise of slavery opponents in the South (Fought 449). The Southern slaver master viewed Mrs. Stowe as arrogant and guilty of defamation, but in the liberal states, she was view as a hero to the voiceless and powerless. Hence, in Boston, many babies born during that era were named Eva, one of the main characters in the novel, while a play based on the book gained publicity in New York. Southerners published anti-Tom novels to counter the popular perspective that Mrs. Stowe's novel had fostered among the Americans. The Anti-Tom stories aimed at exhibiting the positive impact that slavery had on Southern society. Even though most of the anti-Tom publications became bestsellers, none of their copy could surpass the popularity of Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Stowe's success in addressing the slaves' plight in Uncle Tom's Cabin made her an international personality and advocate for anti-slavery. Hence, in 1853, she published a polemical anti-slavery article, A key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, to respond to critics' views that she had overstated the cruelties of slavery. Two Scottish anti-slavery societies invited her to tour the British Isles to raise awareness on the adverse effects of slavery. She recounted her experiences in Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands that almost 500,000 British women supported her course to urge Americans to abolish slavery (Morgan 164). The funds she received during her tour to the British Isles allowed her to exploit the money to support anti-slavery debates, distribute anti-slavery pamphlets, and to free slaves. But, Mrs. Stowe still relied on her capacity to write captivating novels to oppose slavery. She published, "An appeal to Women of the Free States of America, on the Present Crisis on Our Country," in 1854 when Congress was deliberating the Kansas-Nebraska Act before she distributed petitions to oppose the bill (Fought 450). However, when the law was passed, and it opened new prospects of slavery in other territories, she wrote her second anti-slavery book, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp. Unlike Uncle Tom's Cabin accounts that relied on Christian pacifism, in her second novel, the hero Dred presented a historical personality who was hanged in South Carolina for inciting a rebellion among slaves.

When Mrs. Stowe's son, Henry Ellis, drowned in the Connecticut River while attempting to swim, she was depressed. The depression inspired her to write the novel, The Minister's Wooing, that depicted a liberal deviation of her upbringing in the Calvinist theology (Reif and Wagenknecht 104). The book was serialized the prestigious Atlantic Monthly journal, which she had played a crucial role in founding it. Her publications influenced New England's mythification that relied on the journal's cultural mission.

During and After the Civil War

The Civil war period allowed Mrs. Stowe to generate money through her authorship being a professional writer. In 1862, after her trip to Italy, she was inspired to write the novels Agnes of Sorrento and The Pearl of Orr's Island in her occasional articles for the Independent. Likewise, in 1864, she launched a monthly column in the Atlantic to address the critical issues that the nation was facing during the Civil War period. In the article, The public mind, she expressed her editor's anxiety that replicated the uncertainty that Americans had due to the war that lasted from 1861 to 1865(Fought 450). When Mr. Stowe retired in 1863, she became the sole provider of their family, and she continued to write religious poems, children's stories, and bibliographies for the Atlantic. The profits she accrued from her profession enabled her to purchase their home in Mandarin. The burden of domestic issues and commitments such as mitigating her son's alcoholism and his Civil War wounds delayed her publication on the Old town Folks novel.

The pre and post- Civil War period gave an insight into Stowe's professional role in influencing the reconstruction of American politics. She played a fundamental role in pushing for equality for both African American women and men. Stowe partnered with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to embrace the women's suffrage initiative. Her alliance with Stanton and Antony led to their proposal to seek Mrs. Stowe's authorship services in their paper, the Revolution (Morgan 165). In 1869, the duo sorted to utilize her writing skills to raise awareness of the sexual double standards from most popular public gatherings on sexual scandals. Mrs. Stowe blended her artistic talents to blend a masculine and feminine perspective to address the underlying societal issues that their women suffrage sought to address.

Mrs. Stowe's exploited her close link with Lady Byron to write a new version of Uncle Tom's Cabin that addressed sexual slavery issues among female victims. Despite her determination to expose incest and defending it as an aristocratic honor among Englishwomen's Christian life, it was a miscalculation (Morgan 166). Nonetheless, she succeeded in to provoke the wrath of her audience to the abuse. The blunder taught her never to use personal views on sexual issues. For that reason, Mrs. Stowe learned to use journalistic fiction to express her perspective on domestic politics, reform, and women's roles. In 1878, she wrote the novel Poganuc People that fictionalized her memories of her formative years in Litchfield, and it characterized her exist from her literary career (Morgan 166). She died on 1st July 1896 in Hartford, Connecticut.

Conclusion

Harriet Beecher Stowe used her career as an author to address contentious social issues on equality and slavery. Hence, her career enabled her to mold the public's opinion on the proliferation of cruelties against slavery in the Southern states. Her views on motherhood, democratic values, and common sense empowered her to express the grievance of the powerless and voiceless in society. She fomented civil disobedience to challenge religious belief to expose incest based on her values on democracy, Christianity, and motherhood. Being an author when women were denied congress representation and the right to vote, she published articles that expressed the women's p...