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HARRIET BEECHER-STOWE 
(1811-1896) 
 
Harriet Beecher-Stowe was born in Litchfield in the North of America. She was a daughter of a 
clergyman. In 1830 the family moved to Cincinnati. In January 1934 she published “Uncle Lot” 
which won in the magazine “Western Monthly”. It was followed by a great number of other 
stories and later she made it a collection under the title “Mayflower, or Sketches of Scenes and 
characters among the Descendants of Pilgrims”, 1843. These early writings were rather 
primitive, they did not contain any serious conflict in social life. Cincinnati was on the border of 
North and South. The inhabitants of the town heard much more horrible stories about cruel 
treatment of the Negroes. Her father was a President of an ecclesiastical Seminary and the 
students of this seminary established an anti-slavery society and opened local schools for Negro 
population. Very many abolitionists lived in this town. The slave-owners were enraged of 
Negroes and their defenders. They did everything to terrorize black people and their supporters.
Under those conditions the writer had all opportunity to learn the life of black people in the 
South. She wrote many articles and short stories but she considered it insufficient and she set 
herself a task of creating and antislavery novel.
Beecher-Stowe carried out her task in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which was published in the 
magazine “The National Era” (1851-1852), in the serial form. The novel is against the 
oppression of the slaves, the cruel treatment of them by plantation owners. The book produced a 
tremendous impression on the readers. And immediately the voices of attack, a campaign of 
slander came. They said it was untrue to reality and falsification of life. In answer she published 
a “Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1853), a collection of real, authentic documents on which the 
story was based. The book aroused such an interest throughout the world that during some 
months it was translated into a dozen of world languages. It was for the first time in history the 
slave-owners were portrayed as they were with all their atrocities. When “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” 

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saw light all the right thinking people came out demanding the immediate emancipation of 
slaves. 
As for the views of the writer herself, she was far from being radical. She did not call people to 
raise arms against the slavery. She thought that was the task of the church that might preach to 
the people how to eradicate slavery. Her views were temperate. The popularity of the book 
made the author the great public figure. She received so many letters, so many facts after the 
publication of “Uncles Tom’s Cabin”, that then she could write another book “Dred, a Tale of 
the Great Dismal Swamp”, 1856. Her negro in this novel is a leader of an uprising, he is a 
rebellious slave. In this book we see a new approach of the author to the problem. 
When in 1861 the Civil War broke, it found in Beecher-Stowe a supporter. She spoke at 
meetings, she was proud that her son fought in the Yankee Army. She was personally invited by 
Lincoln to the White House. After the Civil War she wrote a number of books, unfortunately 
neither of social nor artistic interest. Harriet Beecher-Stowe’s writing is the transition from 
romanticism to realism. At the same time she is the creator of a social novel in American 
literature.