Harriet Beecher Stowe
Born June 14, 1811
Litchfield, Connecticut
Died July 1, 1896
Hartford, Connecticut
Writer and abolitionist
Author of the best-selling antislavery
novel Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe brought to life the horrors of slavery for people in the Northern United States through her popular novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Her book was one of the first to portray black characters as real people with the same hopes and dreams as whites. It inspired thousands of people in the North to join the fight against slavery, and also increased the tensions between the North and South. As a result, many historians have claimed that Stowe helped cause the Civil War.
Grows Up in a Large Family
Harriet Beecher Stowe was born on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut. She was the seventh of thirteen children (only eleven of whom survived to adulthood) born to the fiery Puritan minister Lyman Beecher (1775–1863). Her mother, a gentle and well-educated woman named Roxanna Foote Beecher, died of tuberculosis when she was four years old. Harriet—known to her family and friends as Hatty—was a small girl with lots of energy and a playful sense of humor.She loved to read and became a very good student.
