Harriet Beecher Stowe House
The house was home to Rev. Lyman Beecher and his large family, a prolific group of religious leaders, educators, writers, and antislavery and women's rights advocates. Harriet herself lived in the house for short periods of time throughout the 1830s. She continued to live in the Walnut Hills neighborhood until 1850. The extended Beecher family includes Harriet's sister, Catherine Beecher, an early female educator and writer who helped found numerous high schools and colleges for women; brother Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, a leader of the women's suffrage movement and considered by some to be the most eloquent minister of his time; General James Beecher, a Civil War general who commanded the first African-American troops in the Union Army recruited from the South; and sister Isabella Beecher Hooker, a women's rights advocate.
The Beechers lived in Cincinnati for nearly 20 years, from 1832 to the early 1850's, before returning East. Shortly after leaving Cincinnati and basing her writing on her experiences in Cincinnati, in 1851-1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe authored the best-selling book of its time, Uncle Tom's Cabin, a fictionalized popular account of the pain slavery imposed on its victims and of the difficult struggles of slaves to escape and travel, on the Underground Railroad, to freedom in the northern states or Canada. Published just after the draconian fugitive slave laws were enacted by the US Congress in 1850, the book made Harriet Beecher Stowe's name a household word in the United States. Uncle Tom's Cabin has been published in over 75 languages and is still an important text used in schools all over the world. Written at a time when women did not vote, have legal rights, or even speak in public meetings, Uncle Tom's Cabin became an important part of the social fabric and thought that eventually caused the Civil War to break out and the southern slaves to be emancipated by President Abraham Lincoln, effective in 1863. Uncle Tom's Cabin is a remarkable example of how one person can make a huge impact to improve the lives of millions of people.
When Harriet Beecher Stowe met President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, he is said to have exclaimed, "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!"
The Beechers lived in Cincinnati for nearly 20 years, from 1832 to the early 1850's, before returning East. Shortly after leaving Cincinnati and basing her writing on her experiences in Cincinnati, in 1851-1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe authored the best-selling book of its time, Uncle Tom's Cabin, a fictionalized popular account of the pain slavery imposed on its victims and of the difficult struggles of slaves to escape and travel, on the Underground Railroad, to freedom in the northern states or Canada. Published just after the draconian fugitive slave laws were enacted by the US Congress in 1850, the book made Harriet Beecher Stowe's name a household word in the United States. Uncle Tom's Cabin has been published in over 75 languages and is still an important text used in schools all over the world. Written at a time when women did not vote, have legal rights, or even speak in public meetings, Uncle Tom's Cabin became an important part of the social fabric and thought that eventually caused the Civil War to break out and the southern slaves to be emancipated by President Abraham Lincoln, effective in 1863. Uncle Tom's Cabin is a remarkable example of how one person can make a huge impact to improve the lives of millions of people.
When Harriet Beecher Stowe met President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, he is said to have exclaimed, "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!"
Interested in learning more?
Harriet Beecher Stowe has been the subject of two Pulitzer Prize winning biographies. Joan Hedrick was awarded the 1995 Prize for Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life and Forrest Wilson won the award in 1941 for Crusader in Crinoline. Both provide detailed descriptions of Harriet's eighteen years in Cincinnati.
Hedrick, Joan. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Wilson, Forrest. Crusader in Crinoline. J. B. Lippincott Company, 1941.
Additional Resources
Abzug, Robert. Passionate Liberator- Theodore Weld and the Dilemma of Reform. New York:Oxford University Press, 1980. (This book details the Lane Seminary debates, which left an indelible mark on Harriet.)
Hagedorn, Ann. Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.(Set in Cincinnati and Ripley Ohio, this book describes life in the area during Harriet's time)
Lerner, Gerda. The Grimke Sisters- Pioneers For Women's Rights and Abolition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. (An in-depth look into the lives of the sisters who turned away from comfort and privilege in South Carolina to attack slavery at its core. Harriet and Angelina Grimke, the future wife of Theodore Weld, met in Connecticut before Harriet moved to Cincinnati.)
Mayer, Henry. All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1998. ( Michael Winston of The Washington Post writes, " Henry Mayer has written one of the best accounts we are ever likely to have of how one man's idealistic belief in the possibility of moral regeneration and political transformation came to be realized...a monumental work of historical biography.")
Resource News!
A letter from Henry B. Stanton, before he married Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the speech James Thome delivered before the American Anti Slavery Society in May 1834 , and a letter from Reverend Samuel Cox, who renounced his views on "colonization" in favor of immediate abolition, were published by William Lloyd Garrison's firm. These are perhaps the earliest accounts of the earth-shaking events in Cincinnati which led the near demise of the Lane Seminary, of which Harriet's father Lyman Beecher was President. Thome's speech, as the son a wealthy slaveholding family in Augusta, Kentucky, ( 50 miles southeast of Cincinnati) described the dehumanizing effects of slavery on both masters and those who were held in bondage. Follow the link for the complete text: http://archive.org/details/debateatlanesemi00thom
The Western Monthly Magazine, published in Cincinnati in the 1830s, was the work of James " Judge" Hall, a veteran of the War of 1812. Hall was a member of the "Semi-Colon" Club,meeting weekly along with Daniel Drake, Salmon Chase, Professor Calvin andMrs. Eliza Stowe, and the Beecher sisters, Catherine and Harriet. This collection features narratives, poetry, current events, notices, and reviews of other works.
The first link is to the May, 1833 issue, which includes " A Scene In the Dark and Bloody Ground" an account of the Battle of Blue Licks Kentucky in 1782. At the bottom of the inside cover appears an ad for a new book...a " Geography for Children" upon an improved plan, by Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet E. Beecher, Principals of the Western Female Institute". The work was Harriet's but she wasn't quite ready to take sole credit.
http://www.archive.org/details/westernmonthlyma15hall
The 1834 Issue contains what's considered to be Harriet's first work of published fiction. Titled " The Prize Tale" ( beginning on page 169), it's a step back into Harriet's memory of her native New England. She was awarded a "prize" of $50.00 for submitting the winning entry in a contest sponsored by Hall. Later in this issue, Hall's " Meteorological Observations" ( page 224) detail the weather for each day in February, 1834, the exact time of the debates at the Lane Seminary. Hall's response to the debates begins on page 266. Titled " Slavery and Education", he took the students to task for daring to discuss issues he felt were best left for adults. This article led to a heated exchange, in person and in print, with Theodore Weld,who was then trying to put into practice the principles adopted by the students' newly formed Abolition Society.
http://archive.org/details/westernmonthlyma02hall
The link below contains Theodore Weld's blistering reply to Hall's editorial. Some of the most colorful and eloquent pleas for freedoms of speech and intellectual inquiry ever composed.
http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/abestwbt.html
The link below contains the story of the " Escape of the 28", which occurred in April 1853, one year after the publication in book form of "Uncle Tom's Cabin". At the time, it was one of the most widely publicized flights to freedom, involving several people in four different states and two countries, and was occasioned by much media coverage in both free and slave states. Some of the most harrowing moments took place in what are now the northern suburbs of Cincinnati. Uncle Tom's Cabin was read by , and to, the escapees before they set out.
http://hamiltonavenueroadtofreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Escape-of-the-28-final.pdf.
Antebellum Cincinnati: Social Intersections in the Queen City.
This website was created by students at Xavier University in Cincinnati: http://curiosity.cs.xu.edu/blogs/antebellumcincinnati/
NEW!
The life story of James Bradley, Lane Seminary's only African American student, whose testimony at the "Lane Debates" in 1834 helped turn the tide in favor of Abolition. http://oberlin.edu/external/EOG/LaneDebates/BradleyLetter.htm
Harriet Beecher Stowe has been the subject of two Pulitzer Prize winning biographies. Joan Hedrick was awarded the 1995 Prize for Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life and Forrest Wilson won the award in 1941 for Crusader in Crinoline. Both provide detailed descriptions of Harriet's eighteen years in Cincinnati.
Hedrick, Joan. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Wilson, Forrest. Crusader in Crinoline. J. B. Lippincott Company, 1941.
Additional Resources
Abzug, Robert. Passionate Liberator- Theodore Weld and the Dilemma of Reform. New York:Oxford University Press, 1980. (This book details the Lane Seminary debates, which left an indelible mark on Harriet.)
Hagedorn, Ann. Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.(Set in Cincinnati and Ripley Ohio, this book describes life in the area during Harriet's time)
Lerner, Gerda. The Grimke Sisters- Pioneers For Women's Rights and Abolition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. (An in-depth look into the lives of the sisters who turned away from comfort and privilege in South Carolina to attack slavery at its core. Harriet and Angelina Grimke, the future wife of Theodore Weld, met in Connecticut before Harriet moved to Cincinnati.)
Mayer, Henry. All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1998. ( Michael Winston of The Washington Post writes, " Henry Mayer has written one of the best accounts we are ever likely to have of how one man's idealistic belief in the possibility of moral regeneration and political transformation came to be realized...a monumental work of historical biography.")
Resource News!
A letter from Henry B. Stanton, before he married Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the speech James Thome delivered before the American Anti Slavery Society in May 1834 , and a letter from Reverend Samuel Cox, who renounced his views on "colonization" in favor of immediate abolition, were published by William Lloyd Garrison's firm. These are perhaps the earliest accounts of the earth-shaking events in Cincinnati which led the near demise of the Lane Seminary, of which Harriet's father Lyman Beecher was President. Thome's speech, as the son a wealthy slaveholding family in Augusta, Kentucky, ( 50 miles southeast of Cincinnati) described the dehumanizing effects of slavery on both masters and those who were held in bondage. Follow the link for the complete text: http://archive.org/details/debateatlanesemi00thom
The Western Monthly Magazine, published in Cincinnati in the 1830s, was the work of James " Judge" Hall, a veteran of the War of 1812. Hall was a member of the "Semi-Colon" Club,meeting weekly along with Daniel Drake, Salmon Chase, Professor Calvin andMrs. Eliza Stowe, and the Beecher sisters, Catherine and Harriet. This collection features narratives, poetry, current events, notices, and reviews of other works.
The first link is to the May, 1833 issue, which includes " A Scene In the Dark and Bloody Ground" an account of the Battle of Blue Licks Kentucky in 1782. At the bottom of the inside cover appears an ad for a new book...a " Geography for Children" upon an improved plan, by Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet E. Beecher, Principals of the Western Female Institute". The work was Harriet's but she wasn't quite ready to take sole credit.
http://www.archive.org/details/westernmonthlyma15hall
The 1834 Issue contains what's considered to be Harriet's first work of published fiction. Titled " The Prize Tale" ( beginning on page 169), it's a step back into Harriet's memory of her native New England. She was awarded a "prize" of $50.00 for submitting the winning entry in a contest sponsored by Hall. Later in this issue, Hall's " Meteorological Observations" ( page 224) detail the weather for each day in February, 1834, the exact time of the debates at the Lane Seminary. Hall's response to the debates begins on page 266. Titled " Slavery and Education", he took the students to task for daring to discuss issues he felt were best left for adults. This article led to a heated exchange, in person and in print, with Theodore Weld,who was then trying to put into practice the principles adopted by the students' newly formed Abolition Society.
http://archive.org/details/westernmonthlyma02hall
The link below contains Theodore Weld's blistering reply to Hall's editorial. Some of the most colorful and eloquent pleas for freedoms of speech and intellectual inquiry ever composed.
http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/abestwbt.html
The link below contains the story of the " Escape of the 28", which occurred in April 1853, one year after the publication in book form of "Uncle Tom's Cabin". At the time, it was one of the most widely publicized flights to freedom, involving several people in four different states and two countries, and was occasioned by much media coverage in both free and slave states. Some of the most harrowing moments took place in what are now the northern suburbs of Cincinnati. Uncle Tom's Cabin was read by , and to, the escapees before they set out.
http://hamiltonavenueroadtofreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Escape-of-the-28-final.pdf.
Antebellum Cincinnati: Social Intersections in the Queen City.
This website was created by students at Xavier University in Cincinnati: http://curiosity.cs.xu.edu/blogs/antebellumcincinnati/
NEW!
The life story of James Bradley, Lane Seminary's only African American student, whose testimony at the "Lane Debates" in 1834 helped turn the tide in favor of Abolition. http://oberlin.edu/external/EOG/LaneDebates/BradleyLetter.htm