NF On this day in 1852 - Uncle Tom's Cabin

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Did you know…?

On June 5, 1851, the first installation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin appeared in The National Era – an abolitionist paper. The story would run for forty installation, and in 1852, it was published in book form.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book helped bring slavery into national consciousness and fanned an emotional wave of sympathy or resentment, depending on the region. Supposedly, Abraham Lincoln greeted Mrs. Stowe during the Civil War years, saying, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”

To commemorate the day, here is a video from C-SPAN Book TV in 2012 about Harriet Beecher Stowe and it includes on site footage at her church and home, along with a discussion of her writing, religious beliefs, and abolitionist cause.
 
Being from Conn. how did she learn so much about slavery in the South? Did she have relatives there?

Good question. I don't know. I can try to research it over the next couple of days.

I just found this - that was weird - I tried to post another reply and it said "24 hours must past before bumping is allowed."

As an adult she moved to Cincinnati.

This is what I found on History.net and it is basically the same on several other sites:

"While in Cincinnati many members of the Beecher family, including Harriet, joined the Semi-Colon Club, a literary and social salon that included future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Salmon P. Chase, Judge James Hall, who was editor of Western Monthly Magazine, and other prominent members of Cincinnati’s intellectual society. They read and critiqued each other’s writing and debated social issues, including slavery.

In 1836, Harriet married widowed clergyman Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor at her father’s theological seminary. They had seven children between 1836 and 1850. 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 1839, 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. However, a few months later, they learned that the girl’s master was in town looking for her and could legally, by any means, seize her and return her to slavery in Kentucky. One night, Professor Stowe and his brother-in-law, Henry Ward Beecher, armed themselves and drove the girl in a covered wagon by unfrequented roads into the country to a trusted friend’s home. This incident became the basis of the fugitives’ escape in Uncle Tom’s Cabin."
 
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