Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe essays

Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe essays Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowes novel, Uncle Toms Cabin, became the single most important piece of antislavery literature in American history. Readers all across the North were captivated by it. The novel sold three hundred thousand copies the first year following its publication, and went on to sell over two million copies in the next ten years. Harriets work was so popular that it became the best-selling book ever. More importantly, the book raised peoples awareness of the terrible injustice of slavery. It convinced countless Northerners to join the abolitionist movement. Some historians claim, that by making people in the North less willing to compromise on the issue of slavery, it helped cause the Civil War. In fact, President Abraham Lincoln once called Harriet Beecher Stowe The little lady who wrote the book that made this big war. Harriet was born on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut. She was the seventh of thirteen children; eleven of whom survived childhood. Harriet was born to a fiery Puritan minister, Lyman Beecher and her mother; Roxanna Foote Beecher was a gentle and well-educated woman. Her mother 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. After winning prizes for her essays as a student at Litchfield Academy, she dreamed of becoming a famous writer. She was particularly close to her younger brother, Henry Ward Beecher, who eventually became a famous preacher like his father. Another important influence was her older sister, Catherine Beecher, who helped raise her after their mother died. Catherine held progressive views about the role of women that were unusual for that time. Believing that women should have the same edu cational opportunities as men, she opened a school for girls in Hartford, Conn...