Writer

Impact.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's first novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), not only was the bestselling novel before the Civil War but also became a highly effective instrument in the movement to abolish slavery in the 1850s. Abraham Lincoln is reported to have commented upon meeting Stowe, "So this is the little lady who made this big war!" The remark is certainly an overstatement, but it indicates Stowe's fame and the extent to which her writing was seen as influencing the moral attitudes of the nation.

Early Years.

Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the daughter of the respected Congregational minister Lyman Beecher and Roxana Foote. She was raised in an environment that emphasized strict moral principles and intellectual energy, elements that shaped her future writing. She attended the Hartford Female Seminary, which was run by her sister Catharine, and later taught there. In 1832 Lyman...