Chapter I: Preface

Thanks are very heartily due to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, the publishers of the works of Mrs. Stowe, for their kind permission to quote freely from her books, and from the biographies of Mrs. Stowe written by her son, Rev. Charles E. Stowe, and by her grandson, Mr. Lyman Beecher Stowe. The same publishers have given permission to make an abstract of “Cleon,” the play by Harriet Beecher, which is found in the “Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe” by Annie Fields, of which they are the publishers. Messrs. Harper and Brothers have also been good enough to allow quotation from the “Autobiography and Correspondence of Lyman Beecher.” To Miss E. N. Vanderpoel, the compiler of “Chronicles of a Pioneer School,” the author wishes to acknowledge her indebtedness for some interesting passages.

The author has also greatly appreciated the permission given by Mr. John R. Howard to quote a short passage about childhood experiences in the Beecher home found in his valuable sketch of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.

To Mr. Charles E. Stowe, the author hereby makes grateful acknowledgment for much helpful advice, and for material not hitherto published. From many friends in Litchfield, Guilford, Hartford and elsewhere, the writer of this book has received invaluable help and would be glad to acknowledge each one’s contribution if there were space to do so. The frontispiece is made from an old _carte de visite_ kindly lent by Mrs. Hannah C. Partridge, of Hartford, Connecticut.

Without these bountiful sources of information and these privileges so graciously allowed, a book of this kind could, of course, not have been written. Where-ever possible the language of Mrs. Stowe herself has been quoted or adapted from the rich treasury of her correspondence and autobiographical writings, or from stories of her own. Among these the “Lyman Beecher Autobiography” fixes forever a composite portrait of the Beecher family and is an almost inexhaustible storehouse of material. Among Mrs. Stowe’s books, the childhood experiences of _Tina_ in “Oldtown Folks” and of _Dolly_ in “Poganuc People” have been a veritable panorama of the young life of Harriet herself. Indeed, so largely do her books reflect not only her ideas and emotions but even the objective incidents of her life, that many of them are almost autobiographic in their character.

CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF MRS. STOWE’S LIFE

1811, June 14. Harriet Elizabeth Beecher was born in
Litchfield, Connecticut, daughter of Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher.

1816. Death of her mother, Roxana Foote Beecher.

1816-1818. Harriet attends Dame School.

1817. Arrival of Harriet’s stepmother, Harriet Porter Beecher.

1823. Harriet’s essay on Immortality read at school exhibition.

1816, 1822, 1825, 1826, 1827. Visits to Foote homestead at Nut
Plains, near Guilford, Connecticut.

1824-1832. Harriet as pupil and afterwards as teacher at her
sister Catherine’s school in Hartford.

1825. Harriet writes a drama in blank verse called “Cleon.”

1825. Harriet becomes a member of the First Church in Hartford.

1826-1832. Pastorate of Dr. Beecher at Hanover Street Church in
Boston. Harriet’s vacations at Boston and Guilford.

1832-1852. Dr. Beecher head of Lane Theological Seminary at
Cincinnati, Ohio. Residence of family at Walnut Hills, suburb
of Cincinnati.

1832-1834. Catherine and Harriet found a school at Cincinnati.

1833. Harriet a member of the Semi-colon Club.

1834. Harriet receives a prize for her first short story.

1833. Harriet visits a plantation in Kentucky and sees slave
life.

1836, January. Marriage of Professor C. E. Stowe and Harriet
Beecher.

1836, September. Birth of Mrs. Stowe’s twin daughters, Harriet
Beecher and Eliza Tyler.

1838, January. Birth of her third child, Henry Ellis.

1840, May. Birth of her fourth child, Frederick William.

1843. Death of her brother, George, by accidental shooting.

1836-1850. Years of sickness, poverty and struggle.

1843, July. Birth of her fifth child, Georgiana May.

1843. Publication of her first book of stories.

1846-1847. Resort to a sanatorium in Vermont for her health.

1848, January. Birth of her sixth child, Samuel Charles.

1849. Cholera epidemic in Cincinnati; death of her youngest
child.

1850-1852. Residence of the Stowe family in Brunswick, Maine.
Professor Stowe at Bowdoin College.

1850, July. Birth of her seventh child, Charles Edward.

1850. The Fugitive Slave Law and slavery agitation.

1850, Mrs. Stowe’s vision of _Uncle Tom’s_ death; writes first
chapter.

1851, June-1852, April. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” appears as a serial
in “National Era.”

1852, March 10. Publication of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in book form.

1852-1853. 300,000 copies sold in United States.

1852, August. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” selling in England at rate of
1,000 a week.

1852. Mrs. Stowe in New York aiding escaped slaves.

1852-1863. Residence of Stowe family in Andover, Mass.
Professor Stowe in Andover Theological Seminary.

1853, April-August. Professor and Mrs. Stowe traveling in
England and Scotland.

1853, May. Meeting at Stafford House, London. “Address” of
500,000 English women, and the “shackle-bracelet” presented to
Harriet Beecher Stowe.

1855-1856. Harriet Beecher Stowe aiding in the anti-slavery
campaign in United States.

1856, July-1857, June. Traveling in England, France and Italy.

1856, August. Professor and Mrs. Stowe meet Queen Victoria.

1857, June. Death by drowning of their son, Henry Ellis.

1859, August-1860, July. Traveling in Switzerland and Italy.

1861, June. Visits her son’s regiment at Jersey City.

1862, November. Visit to Washington. The Contraband Dinner.
Visit to Abraham Lincoln.

1863, July 11. Battle of Gettysburg. Her son, Fred, struck by a
fragment of a shell.

1863-1870. Residence of the Stowe family in Hartford,
Connecticut.

1864. Mrs. Stowe becomes an attendant of the Episcopal Church.

1869-1870. The Lady Byron Defence.

1867-1886. Spends the winters in Mandarin, Florida.

1872-1874. Giving public readings from her own works in New
England and the west.

1882, June 14. Garden party given by her publishers at the
residence of ex-Governor and Mrs. Claflin at Newtonville,
Mass., in honor of her birthday.

1886. Death of Professor Stowe, of her brother, Henry Ward
Beecher, and of her daughter, Georgiana May.

1896, July 1. Death of Harriet Beecher Stowe, aged eighty-five,
at Hartford, Connecticut.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE EARLY HOME OF HARRIET BEECHER STOWE 1

II. WORK AND PLAY IN THE BEECHER PARSONAGE 16

III. HARRIET BEECHER’S SCHOOLING 32

IV. EDUCATION IN THE HOME 51

V. THE BOOKS SHE READ 70

VI. DRAMATIC VENTURES 83

VII. STUDIES AND TEACHERS 96

VIII. SOME STEPS FORWARD 110

IX. A PILGRIMAGE 122

X. THE WESTERN HOME 133

XI. THE FOUNDERS OF A SCHOOL 146

XII. THE SEMI-COLONS 158

XIII. MRS. STOWE THE HOME-MAKER 171

XIV. UNCONSCIOUS PREPARATION FOR A WORK 188

XV. THE GREAT INSPIRATION 204

XVI. “UNCLE TOM’S CABIN” AND ITS INFLUENCE 215

XVII. WANDERING IN FOREIGN LANDS 223

XVIII. A UNIQUE JUBILEE 243

XIX. A VISIT TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN 258

XX. WRITING STORIES OF OLD NEW ENGLAND LIFE 274

XXI. A SERENE OLD AGE 294

Harriet Beecher Stowe