She married Calvin E. Stowe, a student of theology, and thereafter devoted herself to her home and her children. During the years just before the Civil War there was much discussion of the slavery question. Mrs. Stowe had traveled in the South and had seen how the negroes were kept in ignorance, and how cruelly they were sometimes treated. She was aroused by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law and by some of the things that happened as a result of it. She resolved to use her talent for writing to help the slaves.
Writes "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
In 1851 she began the story, Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was first published in serial form in an abolition paper in Washington. It was later published in book form. From the first, the sale of the book was enormous. It was translated into many languages and was very popular abroad as well as at home.
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
From a photograph by Sarony, New York
Mrs. Stowe became famous. It is said that the book converted more than two million people to the cause of freedom for slaves. It helped to unite the North and to give it strength to stand firm in the great conflict.
Mrs. Stowe continued writing in behalf of the slaves. She gave her son to the cause of freedom. He was wounded at Gettysburg and never regained his health. She aided in establishing schools for the negroes in the South, and worked among them earnestly until her death in 1896.