Harriet Beecher Stowe: Growing Up During The Slave Era

Throughout history authors have spoken and taught lessons through their writing. Novels have given readers a deeper insight on historical events that we have not all experienced. Harriet Beecher Stowe is known as one of the most famous authors in America.“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” said Stowe. Her courage and fearlessness has enabled her to write novels that have changed the dynamic of the country, and that will always be part of our history. Growing up during the slave era, influenced many of Stowe’s novels. Stowe was born on June 14, 1811 to Roxana Foote Beecher and Reverend Lyman Beecher. Growing up in Litchfield, Connecticut, her father served as a calvinist minister, while her mother took care of the children and worked around the house. Due to the substandard education offered to girls, Stowe attended the Hartford Female Seminary, where she took classes like math and Latin. After graduating at age sixteen, Stowe stayed at her seminary and became a teacher. The Stowe family was very religious; all of her seven brothers joined the ministry and Stowe would later show her …show more content…
Coming from a moral and spiritual family, Harriet along with her family was against slavery. In 1850 the Fugitive Act was passed; a law enabling the capture and re-enslavement of escaped slaves. As Harriet’s father and brothers preached about the wrong of slavery, Harriet wrote about the wrongs of slavery, which came about her most popular book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. “In writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe had a deliberate goal: she wanted to portray the evils of slavery so a large part of the American public could easily relate to the issue”(McNamara). The National Era, an abolitionist newspaper, was the first to publish Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. Later in 1852, the book became a bestseller and the world of slavery would forever be