As we return to our study of various extraordinary women who are recognized by the Episcopal lectionary of Lesser Feasts and Fasts and A Great Cloud of Witnesses, we come to a famous author and abolitionist who deeply influenced thinking about slavery in the years just prior to the Civil War.
As an author, she joined the Semi-Colon Club at the Seminary, and met her husband Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor at the Seminary. They were married January 6, 1836. They had seven children, one of whom was the impetus for her famous book.
The Stowes supported the Underground Railroad, even housing fugitive slaves in their home in Cincinnati. By 1850, when the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, the Stowes were living in Brunswick, Maine. This law prohibited assistance to fugitive slaves and Harriet would have been against such a law.
Stowe insisted it was a vision of a dying slave during communion at Brunswick’s First Parish Church that inspired Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Many biographers think it was the death of her eighteen-month-old son, Samuel Charles, that gave her empathy for the grief of divided slave families. She told friends, “Having experienced losing someone so close to me, I can sympathize with all the poor, powerless slaves at the unjust auctions. You will always be in my heart Samuel Charles Stowe.”
On March 9, 1850, she wrote Gamaliel Bailey, editor of The National Era, saying, "I feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak... I hope every woman who can write will not be silent.” She told him she planned to write a serial story about the problem of slavery for his anti-slavery journal The National Era.
Stowe earned $400 for her series that ran weekly from June 5, 1851 to April 1, 1852. The initial print run of the 1852 book version was 5000, but in less than a year over 300,000 copies had sold. The book’s portrayal of slavery allowed readers to understand that slavery touched all of society, not just masters, traders, and slaves. Her portrayal of slaves as people with families, hopes, and dreams was eye-opening and intensified the anti-slavery debate. Although Southern writers wrote ‘anti-Tom’ novels seeking to portray slavery in a more positive light, the genie was out of the bottle. More people now understood the depths of degradation other humans were being afflicted with.
Stowe toured, speaking about her book, although often her brothers spoke for her as it was considered ‘unbecoming’ for a woman to lecture. She wrote many other works about abolition, including the “Appeal to Women of the Free States of America, on the Present Crisis on Our Country,” against the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Stowe met President Abraham Lincoln on November 25, 1862. He supposedly joked, “you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” Her daughter reported “It was a very droll time that we had at the White house I assure you... I will only say now that it was all very funny—and we were ready to explode with laughter all the while.” Stowe herself wrote to her husband, “I had a real funny interview with the President.”
The Stowe family moved to Hartford, Connecticut in 1873. She remained there until her death on July 1, 1896. She worked with the Wadworth Atheneum Museum of Art and the Hartford Art School.
The readings appointed for her day are Psalm 94:16-23, Isaiah 26:7-13, 1 Peter 3:8-12, and Matthew 23:1-12. They all focus on God as the one true ruler. For Harriet Beecher Stowe this was undoubtedly true. She wrote and spoke about the evil of slavery because she believed it was a sin against the will of God.
I Peter calls us to “have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing. For ‘Those who desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit; let them turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.’”
This was the message of Harriet Beecher Stowe whose words and work helped create “unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind” against the evil of slavery. Her work resulted in change, although she maintained a servant’s heart guided by Jesus’ words, “The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:11-12)
Neither the publisher, nor Stowe, expected her serial series and book to have such an impact on the conscience of the country. We don’t always know what our words or work may do, either. When offered to God, great things can happen.
What message do you have to share by word or action with the world that might make a difference?
https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/harriet-beecher-stowe/harriet-beecher-stowe-life/
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/harriet-beecher-stowe
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/harriet-beecher-stowe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Beecher_Stowe
