American Literature. Harriet Beecher Stowe (biography)

Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe was a famous author and abolitionist. She is best known for her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).

Her novel wasn't very influential across the Atlantic amongst anti-slavery campaign supporters. 

Throughout her life, Stowe produced 30 books, including her travel memoirs, articles and letters, as well as novels depicting social issues of her period.

The harsh conditions endured by African-Americans due to chattel slavery across Cincinnati became one Stowe's driving forces in writing.

The Stowes were ardent supporters of the Underground Railroad. But they never housed escaping slaves in their home.

By 1852, Harriet wrote her most failure work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Uncle Tom's Cabin depicts the harshness of chattel slavery in the upper and lower South of the U.S. In her novel, Stowe explored the paradox of morality and legality of white apologists.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin received criticism in the North where it was regarded as propaganda. However, in the South, the novel became one of the inspirations against slavery.

In 1853 she published A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a compilation of documents and testimonies in support of disputed details of her indictment of slavery.

After the Civil War began, Stowe traveled to Washington, D.C., where she met with Abraham Lincoln. A possibly apocryphal but popular story credits Lincoln with the greeting, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” 

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was released as a book in March 1852, selling only 300 copies in the US in the first year. But it was later performed on stage and translated into dozens of languages. 

In 1950 Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed runaway enslaved people to be hunted, caught and returned to their owners, even in states where slavery was outlawed.