Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1911-06-01
81 N JUNE of this year the one
hundredth anniversary of the
birth of Harriet Beecher Stowe

W will be widely celebrated. A ne,
life of the little woman VIII
made the great war;" as Lincoln calle
her, is about to come from the press
written by her son, Charles Edwar
Stowe, and her grandson, Lyman Bee
eher Stowe.
Among the most interesting Of tn,
taets 1t brings out is that it nevel
occurred to the little woman" tha
there was anything about "Unclt
Toms Cabin" in the least likely tt
precipitate a war. She wrote the
book with the kindliest feelings to
ward the south, and her aim was tc
be not only just but generous.
To begin with, Mrs. Stowe was moi
OF the extreme abolitionist type. II
was her firm belief that the better
element in the south hated slavery
and that this element was much larger
than was commonly supposed. Then
too, while she loathed the system with
all her heart she was willing to be
neVe that it took more often than not
/ NAO hiuuly pdlTIdTCldl fOrm
She gave Uncle Tom three masters
and two of them were kind. She made
one of her plantation owners detest
slavery and free his slaves. She want.
Cd to make the north understand that
the best southerners would cooperate
with them in a reasonable attempt
TO do away with the evil.
Never was little lady more sur
Drised to find herself execrated. Her
feeling had been when she first wrote
The book that 1t would displease the
aboiihonists and bring sympathetic re-
sponse from the south-that ia. If
anybody ever read it at all, which she
had doubted.
When the book appeared the world
turned topsy-turvy for her. Garrison.
with whom she never quite agreed.
wrote her that she was no longer
aoused-she had drawn it all on her
self People in the south who had
not read the book or who had read II
with their minds made up beforehand.
thought her some sort of a monster
A cousin who lived in Georgia did
not dare put the name of Mrs. Stowe
on the envelope when she wrote to
her.
Mrs. Stowe found herself, in short
put in class of agitators with whom
she had never belonged. and the moor
little dove of peace she had sent out
came back with its feathers rufled be-
yond recognition.
The question of slavery came into
her life at an early period. 1t is not
true that she knew nothing of the
peculiar institution" at first hand
She lived long in Cincinnati and met
there many southerners. and it was
on plantations where she visited that
she got the color for the book she
was TO write many years after.
She was hardly more than a girl
when she visited the Kentucky planta-
ton which became afterward the homo
Of Uncle Tom and Eliza, and about |
The same time she met Topsy. Topsy
came to Cincinnati in the company of |
wealthy Louisiana family which had
liberated its slaves and 1t was in trv.
ng to teach her religion that the
amous conversation occurred. "Do
you know who made your" "Nobodv
Is l knows on; 'spect l growed"
In 1885 Cincinnati became the hot.
'ed OF anti-slavery talk. Mr.. Theodore
Weld Of Lane Theological seminary led
he movement. He had spent mucb
# his life in the midst of slavery and
vas dedicating the remainder of his
ife TO its overthrow. His ablest as
lstant, the editor of an abolitionist
'aper was DR.. Birney, a slave owner
rom Alabama, who had freed his
laves, and come away to fight the
ystem.
1t was natural that with these
riends Mrs. Stowe should have had
indlly feelings toward the sopth
hould have thought that It was ranid-
wakening TO the horror of slavery
nd that the majority of its citizens
7ere anxiously trying to put an end
It As far as the cause" was CON
erned her associations were with !
nti-slavery southerners rather than ,
ne northern abolitionists.
Henry Ward Beecher edited in Gin ,
Innati a small daily paper. his sister. ,
ow Mrs. Stowe, helping him. She
scords an incident Of the agitation G
Cincinnati that shows the fighting ,
loOd Of the young man who was to q
ecome the great preacher. |
DR.. Birney's abolitionist paper was I
recked BY mob. and she writes. b
Many respectable citizens are in C
ined to wink at the outrage in con C
deration Of its moving in the line 7
their prejudices." Henry Ward 4
eecher did not wink. He feared an a