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Harriet Beecher Stowe Facts

Harriet Beecher Stowe Facts
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an author and abolitionist in the United States. She was born Harriet Elisabeth Beecher on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut, to Lyman Beecher and Roxana Foote. Harriet was the 7th child out of 13. Only 11 children survived into adulthood. Her father was an outspoken preacher and her mother died when Harriet was only 5. Harriet attended the Hartford Female Seminary and was educated in the traditional manner. When she was 21 Harriet moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to work with her father. She met African-Americans who had suffered during the riots of 1829 in which Irish immigrants attacked them to drive them out of the city.
Interesting Harriet Beecher Stowe Facts:
Harriet's father was a minister. Harriet's seven brothers also became ministers.
Harriet met Calvin Ellis Stowe in a literary club she joined called the Semi-Colon Club. They became husband and wife in 1836. Together the couple had seven children together, including a set of twin girls.
The Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850 by Congress, which prohibited Americans from providing assistance to fugitive slaves.
In 1851 The National Era published the first installment of Harriet's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Originally the story had only a small following but it soon grew. It was often mentioned in abolitionist publications because it was focused on anti-slavery. The National Era paid Harriet $300 for the 43 chapter book, which was published in installments.
Uncle Tom's Cabin became so popular that when it was released in book edition it became the second best-selling title in the 1800s. The first was the Bible.
Uncle Tom's Cabin sold 10,000 copies in its first week after being released and 300,000 within the first year in the United States. It sold 1.5 million copies in the United Kingdom in the first year.
The success of Harriet's first novel made her what is believed to be the highest paid novelist in the 1800s.
One of Harriet's brothers named Henry Ward Beecher used to ship rifles to anti-slavery settlers in wooden crates that were labeled as Bibles.
A German-language paper based in Philadelphia published an unauthorized translation. Harriet tried to fight in court but the judge supported the Fugitive Slave Act and she essentially lost.
When Harriet met President Abraham Lincoln at the White House in 1862 he reportedly said to her: "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." This was in reference to her book Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Civil War.
Harriet Beecher Stowe went on to write more than 30 books. Her second novel was titled Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp.
Harriet and her family bought a house in Florida to spend the winter each year, despite it being a former slave state.
Several of Harriet's children did not survive. Henry drowned in 1857; Frederick disappeared on the way to California in 1870, Georgiana died in 1890 from septicemia, and Samuel died in infancy from cholera in 1849.
Harriet died in 1896 at the age of 85.


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