Frontispiece to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin (John P. Jewett & Co., President Abraham Lincoln, in office for less than two years 1853). Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, Connecticut and leader of a fractured and war-torn nation, picked up his oppressed and broken-hearted with the Women Writers and the Civil War, 1850- pen and signed his Emancipation Proclamation New Year’s Day sorrows and injustice I saw, because 1872 (University of North Carolina Press, as a Christian I felt the dishonor to 2000), notes that “Lydia Maria Child in 1863. From Boston to Beaufort, South Carolina, crowds that had Christianity—because as a lover of my the Standard and Harriet Beecher Stowe been waiting all day erupted excitedly as the news finally came country, I trembled at the coming day in The Independent were two of the most from Washington, D.C. over the telegraph wires. At the Music of wrath.” prolific and consistent anti-slavery But pro-slavery critics charged that writers in the early years of the war. Hall in Boston, where the program included Longfellow and Stowe had made it all up and that slavery Both used letters to the editor as their Emerson, crowds chanted “Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet was a humane system. So Stowe wrote a primary method of persuasion and both, Beecher Stowe” for the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, nonfiction retort, A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin through counseling idealistic action, (1853), compiling the real-life evidence were well informed and incisive until the “little lady who started this great war” that had informed her fictional stories. governmental critics. The harder edge to came forward and was recognized. Stowe’s sentiments touched millions. their writings demonstrated the strength But did she have Lincoln’s ear? of their conviction that a war for any The question of slavery had been purpose other than social justice would Stowe is often credited part of the American dialogue since the not be worth fighting.” country’s founding. By the 1850 census, Daughter, wife, sister, and mother of with influencing the country of the 20 million people in the U.S., 4 ministers, Stowe used in her advocacy million were enslaved. This “system” writing scriptural phrasing and references. to think differently about that treated people as property and used In her August 1861 “Letter to Lord their uncompensated labor to support Shaftesbury” in The Independent she the economy finally split the country. wrote, “we consider this war is a great slavery. But what do we When the anti-slavery Lincoln was Anti-Slavery War, not in form, but in elected in 1860, the country fractured: fact: not in proclamation, but in the know about how Stowe A decade earlier, Uncle Tom’s Cabin 10 Southern states seceded, while 4 intense conviction and purpose of each (1852) had been a publishing and slave-holding border states stayed in the of the contending parties, and still more influenced Lincoln? propaganda phenomenon. Using stories Union but protected their right to retain in the inevitable overruling indications to illustrate the human impact of slavery, human property. Lincoln spent his entire of divine Providence.” On July 31, 1862 Stowe’s blistering pen lit the world on time in office as a war president. Stowe wrote, “the time has come when fire. The statistics remain record- Stowe had joined abolition and the nation has a RIGHT to demand, and breaking: 10,000 copies sold in the first anti-slavery forces, using her influence the President of the United States a right Lincoln & week; a million and a half British copies in publicly pressuring Lincoln to do to decree, their freedom; and there in a year. The book was so successful it something about slavery. (Of course, he should go up petitions from all the land was immediately dramatized for the was pressured by the pro-slavery side as that he should do it. How many plagues stage, where it became a theatrical icon. well. The Union was far from united must come on us before we will hear the A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, against slavery.) Advocates used all evident voice, ‘Let this people go, that leader of the radical Republicans, said, available means: newspaper articles, letters they may serve me.’” By Katherine Kane “Had there been no Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to the editor, petitions, private letters and Lincoln had long deliberated over the there would have been no Lincoln in the conversations, and public address. issue of slavery, but it took him a year White House.” Opinion leaders such as Stowe used into the war to see his way. Beyond any Bruno Lucchesi, “Lincoln Meets Stowe,” 2006, Lincoln Sculpture Walk, Hartford. In an 1853 letter, Stowe explained the popular press to pressure the moral imperative, as he considered Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, Connecticut what drove her. “I wrote what I did president and Congress. Over the course emancipation, Lincoln was balancing The sculpture commemorates the 1862 because as a woman, as a mother, I was of 1861 and 1862, she published public opinion (for and against slavery), meeting in Washington D. C. between President Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe. frequently in the New York paper The the racist attitudes of the day, his Katherine Kane is executive director of the Independent. Historian Lyde Cullen Sizer, responsibilities to the Constitution, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. She last wrote in her book The Political Work of Northern military needs, and diplomatic pressure. “The Most Famous American” for the Summer 2011 issue. (c) 2013 Connecticut Explored Inc. Vol 11, No 1, Winter 2012/2013. www.ctexplored.org Copying and distribution of this article is not permitted without permission of the publisher. And he was keeping his eye on his Tom’s Cabin. Bray acknowl- own reelection. By early summer of 1862, edged that “Lincoln might though, he determined his course have at least looked at the Key of action. without having read Stowe's As a war president, Lincoln’s goal was novel, since the former a united country. But he was also contained… documentation struggling to decide the best course for supporting the author’s repre- emancipation. By the fall of 1861 through sentation of slavery—plausi- the next summer, Lincoln promoted bly quite interesting to various versions of compensated emanci- Lincoln.” Bray downplays pation even as he considered alternatives. Library of Congress circula- As the war proceeded, though, people tion records: “…in addition to took things into their own hands. Human Lincoln himself, the books in “property” crossed Union military lines. question may have been Two commanding officers declared eman- borrowed from the Library by cipation: General John C. Fremont or for Mary Todd Lincoln, the freeing slaves in Missouri the summer of Lincoln children, or any of the 1861 and in May 1862, General David president’s secretaries. Who Hunter doing so in areas of South borrowed what is hard to Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. President determine.” Was Bray right Lincoln overrode both actions on the about that? Could Lincoln, in grounds that the president was the only this moment in history, have one who could take such action. possibly not read the most The 37th Congress—freed from years popular book in America? of legislative deadlock by the departure of In Lincoln’s day, the Library seceding Southern legislators—had also of Congress collection was acted. In April 1862, Congress emancipat- only available to members of ed people enslaved in Washington, D.C., Congress, justices of the compensating the owners. And they Supreme Court, diplomatic passed a Confiscation Act freeing the corps, and the cabinet. human property of Confederate officials Lincoln used the Library A page from the Stafford House petition, a collection of more in areas occupied by the Union army. regularly. Today the Library’s than 500,000 signatures from women of Great Britain asking U.S. above: The Library of Congress in the U.S. Slaves reaching Union territory were collections are accessible to women to work to abolish slavery. It was presented to Stowe in Capitol Building, c. 1853. Lincoln regularly London in 1853. Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, Connecticut visited the Library of Congress, then only “captives of war” and would be set free. everyone, so one chilly open to members of Congress, justices of Lincoln may be the most-studied February a couple of years the Supreme Court, diplomatic corps, and American, and many details of his life are ago, I traveled to Washington returned on July 29. This corresponds the cabinet. He checked out Stowe’s A well known. Others, though, are not. and investigated for myself. After passing with the time during which he drafted the Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin as he was con- templating the Emancipation Robert Bray, in his 2007 article in the through security screening and registering Emancipation Proclamation. Proclamation. Library of Congress Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association as a reader, I handed a call slip for the Two days after Lincoln checked out A right: Broadside for a Boston Music Hall “What Abraham Lincoln Read—An 1862 circulation records to a manuscripts Key, on June 18, he and Vice President concert on January 1, 1863. Stowe Evaluative and Annotated List,” evaluat- reference librarian. Soon I was presented Hannibal Hamlin rode to the Lincolns’ attended to be with others who had ed what this pivotal president read—and with a quarto-sized ledger book, rebound summer cottage at the Soldiers’ Home in worked for the abolition of slavery and what he did not read, testing the theory with brown pasteboard covers. Skimming was called to the stage by an appreciative Washington, D.C. Hamlin reported that crowd. Houghton Library, Harvard University that what one reads reflects one’s interests the handwritten columns in the section after dinner they retired to the library and far right: A page from the log book of the and influences what one thinks. Bray documenting Lincoln’s transactions for locked the doors. Then Lincoln read Library of Congress showing the books concluded that it is “somewhat unlikely” 1861-1863, I found that on June 16, Hamlin the draft of the Emancipation President Lincoln checked out, including that Lincoln read Uncle Tom’s Cabin and 1862, President Lincoln had checked out Proclamation he had been writing. Stowe’s A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, “very unlikely” he read A Key to Uncle “Stowe’s Key to Uncle Tom,” which he which he checked out on June 16, 1862 and returned July 29. Library of Congress (c) 2013 Connecticut Explored Inc. Vol 11, No 1, Winter 2012/2013. www.ctexplored.org Copying and distribution of this article is not permitted without permission of the publisher. On July 22, Lincoln read oppressed; what I forbear, I forbear a hero to many but villain to others. Doris tempered by her brother Henry’s The degree to which Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the Proclamation to his because it does not help to free the Kearns Goodwin writes in her 2005 Team skepticism, as she notes in a December 13 A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Stowe herself cabinet. Cabinet members oppressed. I shall do less for the Union of Rivals that the Emancipation letter to Senator Sumner: influenced Lincoln’s thinking as he crafted knew it was bold, and they whenever it would hurt the cause of the Proclamation was “shocking in scope. In a Every body I meet in New the Emancipation Proclamation may worried it would encourage slave, and more when I believe it would single stroke, it superseded legislation on England says to me with anxious never be known. But it is clear that Stowe insurrection north and help the cause of the slave.” slavery and property rights that had earnestness—[Will] the President contributed mightily to the body of public south. Lincoln argued the On September 22, 1862 Lincoln guided policy in eleven states for nearly stand firm to his Proclamation? — thought and the flavor of public opinion Proclamation would unite released the preliminary Emancipation three quarters of a century. Three and a I tell them your saying—that upon which Lincoln inevitably drew as the Republicans for the fall Proclamation. It included steps for half million blacks who had lived enslaved nobody ever could put out the he formulated his thoughts regarding elections, reduce the “free” “owner” compensation and colonization, for generations were promised freedom.” labor and perseverance to make emancipation. slave labor supporting the or export, of emancipated people, Stowe was among the skeptics, and she him back down that you have to Stowe’s position as author of the Southern war effort, and provisions that were dropped from the determined to publish a response to the induce him to go up. —Brother attitude-changing Uncle Tom’s Cabin gave help keep Europe on the final Proclamation. It did not provide for Stafford House petition presented to her Henry says—not so sure after all— her a solid platform for shaping public North’s side. At Secretary adding emancipated people to military in London in 1853 in which the women it’s far easier to slide down on the opinion. She wrote frequently about Seward’s suggestion, Lincoln units; such provisions were added to the of Great Britain asked the women of the bannisters than to go up the stairs. emancipation during 1861 and 1862. And decided to publicly release the final Proclamation. Lincoln announced U.S. to abolish slavery. The petition, now —Dont let Mr. Sumner be too in the critical period of June and July preliminary Emancipation that he would sign it on January 1, one in the Center’s collection, a recent gift sure they say—Such unsleeping 1862, when Lincoln was drafting the Proclamation after a mili- hundred days later. Yet abolitionists of the Connecticut Historical Society, tremendous forces are at work to Proclamation and then sharing it tary victory; that took until had no confidence he would fulfill contains 563,000 signatures in 26 volumes. shake his resolution—such long privately, he had Stowe’s A Key to Uncle September 22, after the that promise. Stowe also decided to personally fingered intrigue reaches even Tom’s Cabin close at hand. ! battle of Antietam. Their skepticism was reasonable. influence the president. She wrote her from Richmond to Washington Meanwhile, public pres- Deeply controversial and radical, the publisher James T. Fields on November that you all should be like knights sure was building. Though Emancipation Proclamation made Lincoln 13, 1862, “I am going to Washington to that watch an enchanted shield the president had set his see the heads of department myself and to past some fateful crisis—If you Explore! Stowe frequently contributed to The course, the public was satisfy myself that I may refer to the sleep a moment all may be gone— Independent, a New York religious anti- The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center presents: unaware of it. On August slavery paper. In the September 11, 1862 Emancipation Proclamation as a reality Well—if the First of January Engraving, “Harriet Beecher Stowe” writing in her conservatory 20, 1862 he responded to issue, her article “The Prayer” responded to and a substance not to fizzle out at the sees the sacred shield yet unstolen Performance & Panel Discussion: at Oakholm, her first Hartford home, originally published as a Lincoln’s public statement the month before The Emancipation Proclamation at 150: frontispiece to her Our Young Folks, 1866. Harriet Beecher Stowe “The Prayer of 20 Millions” little end of the hour… I start for from our temple—if the President about his intent with regard to the future of Still Relevant, Still Revolutionary Center, Hartford, Connecticut published in Horace Washington tomorrow morning—and even tho it be with An Aroon and slavery. Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, December 13, 2012, 5-7 p.m., Stowe Center Greeley’s influential New Connecticut mean to have a talk with ‘Father Hur [Biblical heroes] each side to A reading from the historic record by York Tribune. “My para- Abraham’ himself.” On November 19 she upstay his hands speaks those A few weeks later, on July 13, 1862, “Abraham Lincoln” followed by a panel and mount object,” Lincoln wrote, “in this wrote, again to Fields, expressing some tremendous words of power— President Lincoln, Secretary of the Navy discussion with Gene Leach and Booker struggle is to save the Union, and is not optimism: then—you will all draw a long Gideon Welles, and Secretary of State DeVaughn. $5, free for Stowe Center members. William Seward shared a carriage for the either to save or destroy Slavery. If I could There is most cheering news ahead breath and shake hands with each funeral of Secretary of War Edwin save the Union without freeing any slave in the way of assurance that our other. I remember just after Uncle Symposium: Seizing Liberty Stanton’s child. Welles recalled in his I would do it…What I do about slavery war is to be put right through and Tom was published you were April 20, 2013, 8:30 a.m.- 4 p.m., at Hartford diary, “It was on this occasion and on this and the colored race, I do because I that the Proclamation is to go with telling me some of the incidents of Public High School ride that [Lincoln] first mentioned . . . the believe it helps to save the Union and vigor. We shall see a great first and your conflict with slavery in This symposium will link historic and subject of emancipating the slaves by what I forbear I forbear because I do not I think I am doing as well as for my Washington—and that then you contemporary abolition and emancipation. Keynote address by Debby Applegate, author proclamation . . . He dwelt earnestly on believe it would help to save the Union.” testimony to it as I could ask. arose and walked across the room of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning The Most the gravity, importance, and delicacy of Stowe responded with her own Her optimism continued as she wrote very alertly and said—I expect to Famous Man in America: The Biography of the movement, said he had given it much “prayer” on September 11 in The to Fields again on the 27th: “It seems to be live to see this thing all down Henry Ward Beecher, followed by panels, thought and had about come to the Independent. Borrowing Lincoln’s phras- the opinion here not only that the under foot yet—I wondered then dramatic readings, abolitionist workshop, ing, she wrote, “my paramount object in president will stand up to his to hear you say it—[Can] it be conclusion that it was a military necessity and tour of the Stowe House. absolutely essential for the salvation of this struggle is to set at liberty them that Proclamation but that the Boarder [sic] true that the time is so near— the Union, that we must free the slaves or are bruised, and not either to save or states will accede to his proposition for For Harriet Beecher Stowe emancipa- For more information visit be ourselves subdued.” destroy the Union. What I do in favor of Emancipation—I have noted the thing as tion in any form had been a long HarrietBeecherStowe.org or the Union, I do because it helps to free the a glorious expectancy!” Her outlook was time coming. call 860-522-9258, ext. 317. (c) 2013 Connecticut Explored Inc. 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