The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1890-08-15
HOW UNCLE TOMS CABIN" GAME TO
BE WRITTEN

II there is anything in foreordina
tion, Harriet Beecher Stowe was pre-
destined to write Uncle Toms Cabin
She did not intend to do it. She has
said that "For many years OF her life
she avoided all reading upon or ailu-
sion to the subject of slavery" But
in Cincinnatti 1t was thrust upon her nj
every turn.
An incident which increased her in.
terest in the problem of freedom wos
the coming to Walnut Hills of a fam
ily from the far South. who for con.
science sake had separated themselves
from the associations of their lifetime !
and sought home in the then ua-
broken forests on the banks of the !
Ohio. Here the Tichenors and Over
akers, a family of aristocrslic English !
descent, made for themselves home
in the Siuthern style, the first of
those really ducal estates of which so
many now crown the banks of the
Ohio and the orests OF Cincinnattis
hills. THIS family brought with them
retinue of house servants in order to
set them free. They were scattered
among the various families of this
lovely vicinage, some being employed
at one time or another in Prof. Stoves
family and some in that Of his next
neighbor, also professor in the semi
nary. One of these neighbors has
said that she has seen Mrs. Stowe sit
whole summer afternoons watching
the children of the two families aud
the young blacks at play.
1t was then and there that Mrs.
Stowe saw Topsy aud took her CONT
cal likeness in unfadiug colors. Topsy
was a stray bit Of ebony humanity
that, in some unrecorded way, came to
be one of the picksninnies who perch
ed on the porticos of the Overaker
mansion in New Orleans, where the
family had winter home, or hung
around the quarters, ran errands, or
played with the dogs on the Ticheuor
plantation at Natchez. She was such
a little imp of darkness that it was
agreed on all sides that ''that limb was
past saving aud so she was left
among the feld-hands, who were to
work out their freedom there on the
plantation at Natchez. But the case
of the abandoned waif appealed to
the sympathy of Mrs, Stoves neigh
Dor, and the elfish Topsy was brought
north and placed iu the family of the
young professor to be trained for ser
vice. 1t must be confessed that the
effort to develop her into reasonable
being was not shining success.
Joan-for that was her real name
drifted into the abandoned stratum of
Cincinnati life, and was seen no more
by her former friends till the day Of
Mrs. Tichenor's funeral. Black Sam,
also, he of the "o6observatioa" faoul-
ty, was at service in the same family
but he will be best remembered by the
act of putting the beech-nut under
Haley's saddle when they were abou,
to start after Eliza. Other of the fry
named were members of the same
group.
1t was at Walnut Hills also that
Mrs. Stowe knew the original Of
"Uncle Pete" In "Dred," or "Nin'
Gordon" as it was afterwards called
He was then an old man, known a
'Colored Williams and he certainl,
was of as "rockfast and deep-set q
black dye as mortal flesh could take
Like that faithful old soul who took
care of the Peyton children aud al
ways spoke of himself and them a
"We Peyton folks so this devoted
retainer of the professors families TO
odd jobs always spoke of himself an'
them as 1--WE seminary folks" Peac,
to his gray ashes! He died a few
years ago, at Walnut Hills, aged, j
was said, one hundred and twelv
years.
In 1850 DIR. Stowe had accepted
professorship at Boduoin, and wa
living in Brunswick when the Fugitiv
Slave Law of that year was passed
This was the final fire which set tn
colors of Mrs. Stoves resolution t
write something "which should hol
up slavery to the world as a dramati
reality" She chose the form OF
story, knowing we'll that
Where Truth is closest words shall fail,
There Truth embodied In a tale
Shall enter in at open doors.
Not for flames sake did she write, br
that she might execute the commissio
which the Divine Guide, by the ms
ture of her genius and culture and b
the circumstances of her life, had lal
upon her. The intense absorption q
her theme held Der away from ever
other interest, for circumstances wei
never less favorable to the executio
of great work. She was then in I'll
midst of heavy domestic cares, with
young infant and with party ,
pupils in her family to whom she wi
imparting lessons daily with her ow
children; but the story was so muo
more intense reality to he, than an
other earthly thing that the week
instalment for DIR. Bailey's Nation
Era never failed. Once Mr.. Jewet
who was to publish it, wrote to a
her not TO make it too long, as the su
ject was an unpopular one. MI
Stowe replied that she did not NAL
the story, that the story made itse
and that she could not stop till it W
done, This feeling increased in inte
sity to the end. 1t is even said tn
in these last days of her life she h
said, ''God wrote it. merely d
His dicJation. From an article 9
Harriet Bsecher Stooe, by Eleaet
p. AUen, in August Lippincotts.