Profile of the Day: Harriet Beecher Stowe

On this day in 1811, American writer and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Image: Harriet Beecher Stowe / U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

She was the seventh of thirteen children born to Lyman Beecher, a Calvinist preacher, and Roxana Foote. The Beecher family was a prominent New England family known for their involvement in political issues regarding religion, civil rights and social reform. Her great grandfather, General Andrew Ward V, had served in the American Revolutionary War.

Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is often credited with galvanizing the abolitionist movement in the country. Her detailed depiction of the harsh conditions for African American slaves captured the attention of thousands of readers and played a significant role in changing the public’s opinion on slavery. Shortly after the start of the Civil War, Stowe traveled to the nation’s capital where she met with President Abraham Lincoln. Legend has it that upon meeting Stowe, Lincoln greeted her by saying, “so you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”

Stowe died on July 1, 1896 in Hartford, Connecticut at the age of 85.

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