Why is harriet beecher stowe famous

Vollaro, Daniel. Volume 30 , Issue 1 , Winter , pp. MLA — Michals, Debra. Date accessed. American National Biography. Ohio History Central. National Parks Service. Harriet Beecher Stowe House. Selected Letters. Bowdoin College. Baruch Library. The Beecher Tradition. Clemson University. University of North Carolina Press, In , at the age of 13, she moved to Hartford, Connecticut, to attend the Hartford Female Seminary, founded and run by her eldest sister, Catharine.

Harriet eventually became an assistant teacher at the seminary. As a Calvinist preaching against the evils of Unitarianism in the religious center of the Unitarian movement, he was not as successful as he had hoped. He moved his family again in , this time to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati and president of the Lane Theological Seminary of Cincinnati. By moving to the western frontier, Lyman would train preachers at the seminary and use them to spread Protestantism—and his anti-Catholicism views—in the West.

They had seven children between and During their time in Cincinnati, the Stowes met and talked with slaves that had escaped to Ohio from neighboring Kentucky and Virginia. They were friends with abolitionists who participated in the Underground Railroad , and Harriet visited Kentucky, where she saw the impact of slavery first-hand.

In , the Stowes hired a servant girl from Kentucky, who by the laws of Ohio was free since her mistress had brought her and allowed her to stay in Cincinnati. Calvin, active in public education, was very supportive of her writing and her involvement in public affairs. She was one of eleven children of a famous preacher. She attended school, which was unusual for a girl at that time.

When she was 12, her principal read her term paper aloud at her graduation. At the age of 16, Harriet became a full-time teacher. Her earliest publication was a geography book for children called a Primary Geography for Children. In this novel, Harriet tried to show what life was like for slaves who were treated harshly. Harriet lost a son when he was only months old. She could well imagine how terrible it would be for a slave mother to lose a child because the child was sold.

In the book, Harriet describes the desperate flight of Eliza, a slave, as she runs across a frozen river with her son Harry in her arms to save him from being sold. She was often asked to weigh in on political issues of the day, such as polygamy. Despite the moral rectitude of the Beechers, the family was not immune to scandal.

In , charges of an adulterous affair between Henry Ward Beecher and a female parishioner brought national scandal. Stowe maintained that her brother was innocent throughout the subsequent trial. While Stowe is closely associated with New England, she spent a considerable amount of time near Jacksonville, Florida.

The Stowe family spent winters in Mandarin, Florida. Stowe died on July 1, , in Hartford, Connecticut. She was Landmarks dedicated to the life, work and memory of Stowe exist across the eastern United States. In , Bowdoin College purchased the house, together with a newer attached building, and was able to raise the substantial funds necessary to restore the house.

The home is now a museum, featuring items owned by Stowe, as well as a research library.