Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1890-08-08
NO. 81.
How "UncIe Toms Cabin" Came 10 be
NNftfen

written.
II there is anything in foreordination
Harriet Beecher Stowe was predcstined 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 read
ing upon or illusions to the subject Of
slavery But in Cincinnati it was thrust
upon her at every turn.
An incident which increased her interest
in the problem Of freedom was the coming
10 Walnut Hills of family from the far
South, who for consciences sake had sepa
rated themselves from the associations of
their lifetime and sought home in the
then unbroken forests on the banks of the
Ohio. Here the Tichenors and Overakers,
family of aristocratic English descent,
made for themselves a home in the south
ern style, the first Of those really ducal es-
tates of which so many now crown the
banks of the Ohio and the crests of Cincin-
nati's hills. This family brought with
them a 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 neghbor, also
professor in the seminary. One of these
neighbors has said that she has seen Mrs
ing the children of the two families and
the young blacks at play
1t was then and there that Mrs. Stowe
saw Topsy and took her comical likeness in
unfading colors Topsy was a stray bit of
ebony humanity that, in some unrecorded
way, came to be one Of the pickaninnies
who perched on the porticos of the Over
aker mansion in New Orleans, where the
family had a winter home, or hung around
the quarters, ran errands, or played with
the dogs on the Tichenor plantation at
Natchez. She was such a little imp of
darkness that it was agreed on all sides
that that limb was past saving and so
she was left among the field hands, who
were to work out their freedom there on
the plantation at Natchez. But the case of
the abandoned waif appealed to the sym
pathy of Mrs. Stoves neighbor, and the
elfsh Topsy was brought North and placed
in the family of the young professor to he
trained for service. 1t must he confessed
that the effort TO develop her into a reason
able being was not "a 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 flu
neral. Black Sam, also he of the "O'bOb-
SerrdfiOn" faculty, was at service in the
same family; but he will be best remem-
bered by the act of putting the beechnut
under Haey's saddle when they were about
TO start after Eliza. Other of the small
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 "Nina Gordon as it WIS
afterwards called. He was then an old
man, known as "Coored Williams" and
he certainly was Of as "rockfast" aud
deep-set black dye as mortal flesh could
take Like that faithful old soul who took
care Of the Peyton children and always
spoke of himself and them as 1--WE Peyton
folks so this devoted retainer of the
professors families for odd Jobs always
spoke Of himself and them as we seminary
folks Peace to his gray ashes He died
few years ago, at Walnut Hills, aged, it
was said, one hundred and twelve years
In 1880 DR.. Stowe had accepted a profes-
sorship at Bowdoin, and was living in
Brunswick when the fugitive slave law
OF that year was passed. This was the
final fire which set the colors of Mrs
Stoves resolution to write something
(which should hold up slavery to the
world as a dramatic reality She chose
the form of a story, knowing well that
Where Truth in closest words shall fail
There Truth embodied in tale
Shall enter in at open doors
Not for flames sake did she write, but that
she might execute the commission which
the Divine Guide, by the nature of her
genius and culture and by the circumstances
of her life, had laid upon her The intense
absorption of her theme held her away
from every other interest, for circum-
stances were never less favorable to the ex-
ecution of a great work. She was then in
the midst of heavy domestic cares, with
young infant, and with party of pupils in
her family to whom she was impartng
lessons daily with her own children; but
the story was so much more intense "A
reality to her than any other earthly thing
that the weekly nstalment for DR.. Baieys
National Era never failed. Once Mr.
Jewett, who was to publish it, wrote to ask
her not to make it too long as the subject
was an unpopular one. Mrs Stowe re
| piled that she did not make the story, that
the story made itself, and that she could
not stop till it was done. This feeling in
creased in intensity to the end 1t is even
said that in these last days Of her life she
has said, God wrote it, | merely did
his dictation. From az article on Hdi-
I'iet Beecher Sto,Ue in 1Ugl,st LippincoH'S.