A Brief Sketch of the Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe

OCT -8 192:8 PS 2956 • H6 .1.896 IS A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, BY HER SISTER, oo ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER. -"'•J CO <fc \ J-— C-D CZD •877 o IN the latter years of her life Mrs. Stowe was unable to aid the benevolent objects which had greatly interested her, by reason of the failure of receipts from "Uncle Tom's Cabin/' the copyright having expired. I have designed this Souvenir Spoon as a memento of my sister, and, should the sale of it bring some return to me, I shall delight to spend it largely in ways which she would have approved and for objects that always had her sympathy. ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER. HARTFORD, Nov. I, 1896. MRS. STOWE'S HOUSE IN HARTFORD. ARRIET BEECHER STOWE, the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," was born in Litchfield, Conn., June 14, 1811. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was a Con- gregational minister of remarkable ability, both as an orator and a profound thinker, and it is said that his six sermons on intemperance, though the first ever printed in this country, have never been surpassed for effectiveness in the cause of tem- perance. They were reprinted abroad, and read nearly everywhere that the English language was spoken. Harriet attended the village school with her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, who was two years younger than herself, and later the school taught by John P. Brace, and was so interested in his talks on composition, given to the older classes while she was supposed to be studying her pri- mary books, that she offered, when only nine years old, to write a composition every week, the first subject being "The difference between the Natural and the Moral Sublime." 8 When twelve years old she wrote a composition of such merit that it was selected to be read with two others at the annual exhibition—the subject: " Can the immortality of the soul be proved by the light of nature?"—and her father, being one of the judges, after listening with deep interest, turned to Mr. Brace, and said, "Who wrote that?" "Your daughter, sir," was the reply, and she was so overjoyed that in after years she declared it was the proudest moment of her life. It was from her father also that in these young days she learned the true nature of slavery and the slave trade. This is her own story as written to a friend in 1851: " I was a child in 1820 when the Missouri Compromise was agitated, and one of the strongest and deepest impressions on my mind was that made by my father's sermons and prayers and the anguish of his soul for the poor slave at that time. I remember his preaching drawing tears down the hardest faces of the old farmers in his congregation. I well remember his prayers, morning and evening, in the family, for 'poor, oppressed, bleeding Africa,' that the time of her deliverance might come; prayers offered with strong crying and tears, and which indelibly impressed my heart and made me what I am from my very soul, the enemy of all slavery." Story books were rare in those days, but ran- sacking barrels in the garret she found a few odd pages of Don Quixote, which she devoured with eager relish, and at last a full copy of "The Arabian Nights." This she fairly committed to memory, and it is one of the family traditions, that when sleeping in the same room with her two young brothers she made bedtime a joy to them by re- hearsing those wonderful stories, and when these were exhausted, at their earnest request, she orig- inated new ones of the same order. Finally her father, overcome by the genius of Sir Walter Scott, said to his children, "You may read Scott's novels; I have always disapproved of novels as trash, but in these are real genius and real culture and you may read them," and, she adds, "we did read them, for in one summer George and I went through Ivanhoe seven times, and were both of us able to recite many of its scenes from beginning to end, verbatim." When about thirteen she was sent to her sister Catharine's seminary, just being established 10 in Hartford, Conn., and soon became teacher as well as scholar, being set to teach a class of girls as old as herself in Butler's Analogy, and thus compelled to master each chapter just ahead of her class. She remained in Hartford till 1832, when her father, being called to Cincinnati as President of Lane Theological Seminary, took nearly the whole of his family with him, and made for them a home on Walnut Hills, three miles out of the city, and in a most lovely grove of native forest trees. For several years the sisters conducted a seminary like the one in Hartford. On January 6, 1836, she was married to Prof. Calvin E. Stowe, who was sent to Europe immediately after as a Commis- sioner appointed by the State of Ohio to investi- gate the public school systems of Europe, especially Prussia, and report to the Legislature. During his absence Mrs. Stowe lived with her father, and wrote short stories for a literary society called "The Semi-Colon," which were read aloud at its meet- ings and excited much admiration, the reader being sometimes moved to tears, and unable to proceed; and occasionally she wrote for "The Western Monthly Magazine" and "The New York II Evangelist." Most of these stories will be republished in the Houghton & Mifflin edition of her complete works now being issued, under the title of " Household Papers and Stories." She also assisted her brother Henry on " The Journal," a small daily paper, of which he was the temporary editor. The Anti-Slavery movement in Cincinnati began at this time. Mr. J. G. Bir- ney, of Huntsville, Alabama, having liberated his slaves, came to Cincinnati, and, in connection with Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, founded an anti-slavery paper called " The Philanthropist." This paper was mobbed by Kentucky slaveholders and their allies, and finally suppressed, and Mrs. Stowe says of this time, "All the papers in the city, ex- cept Hammond's Gazette and brother Henry's Journal, were either silent or openly mobocratic." On September 29, 1836, her twin daughters were born, and named Harriet Beecher Stowe and Eliza Tyler Stowe, and on January 14, 1838, her son Henry was born. Thus her domestic life began, and from this date she struggled with ill health and poverty for fourteen years, giving birth to six children, until, in 1850, Mr. Stowe became a Professor in Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, II and, in 1852, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was published, and brought her $10,000 at once and a yearly in- come which made her comfortable for life. It was during this life in Ohio, however, that she became familiar with the cruelties of slavery, through the fugitives from Kentucky who were continually crossing the Ohio river and being pro- tected and helped on their way by what was known as the " Underground Railroad," their house and barn being one of the first stations. Talking with these poor runaways nearly broke her heart, and thus it was she was able, in after years, to draw tears of sympathy from thousands all over the world, and thus was aroused that irre- sistible force of public opinion which finally put an end to the whole system. While living in Brunswick her seventh child was born, and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was written from the nursery, and amid serious cares and dis- tractions, the days of poverty not yet being over. Early in 1853 the family moved to Andover, Mass., and, in April, Mrs. Stowe visited England with her husband and her brother Charles, and was royally entertained by some of the most dis- tinguished families on account of her "wonderful 13 book," and her after correspondence with states- men and authors on subjects of vital importance gives evidence of rare ability in other fields than mere story writing. Twice again she traveled in Europe, writing "Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands" and "Agnes of Sorrento," and, on her return, she wrote several stories of New England life, all of which are now being republished. In 1863 Professor Stowe's failing health caused him to resign his work in Andover, and the family moved to Hartford, the home of Mrs. Stowe's early days, where she resided until her death, which oc- curred July 1, 1896. During the last ten years of her life failing health prevented her writing or taking any serious interest in affairs. She spent most of her time in long walks with a faithful attendant, gathering wild flowers, of which she was passionately fond in summer, and breathing the crisp air of winter as a physical luxury, ten- derly cared for by her twin daughters, who still reside in her house, and by her son, Rev. Charles E. Stowe, who is settled over a Congregational church in Simsbury, Conn. 14 Mr. Stowe died in 1886, and four of her children were waiting with him to welcome her on the other shore, besides her parents, her sister Cath- arine and five brothers. She has left only three children and three grandchildren. She was buried in the village church-yard at Andover, by the side of her husband and her son Henry. In the retrospect, it seems to me that her genius was well matched by her gentleness and patience under great trials, her indomitable courage and power of execution, her hatred of all wrong doing, yet tender pity toward the transgressor, and her heavenly mindedness in the midst of earthly cares and sorrows.

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