Charlevoix county herald., 1911-06-10
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birth OF Harriet Beecher Stowe
will be widely celebrated. new
life of the little woman who
made the great war;" as Lincoln called
her, is about to come from the press,
written by her son, Charles Edward
Stowe, and her grandson, Lyman Bee
cher Stowe
Among the most interesting Of the
facts it brings out is that it never
occurred to the little woman" that
there was anything about Uncle
Toms Cabin" in the least likely to
precipitate a war. She wrote the
book with the kindliest feelings to-
ward the south, and her aim was to
be not only just but generous.
To begin with, Mrs. Stowe was not
OF the extreme abolitionist type. 1t
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-
heve that it took more often than not
the kindly patriarchal form.
She gave Uncle Tom three masters,
and two of them We're kind. She made
one of her plantation owners detest
slavery and free his slaves. She want
ed 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 a little lady more sur
prised to- find herself execrated. Her
feeling had been when she first wrote
the book that it would displease the
abolitionists and bring sympathetic re-
sponse from the south-that is, 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
abused-she had drawn it all on her
self. People in the south who had
not read the book or who had read il
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 a class of agitators with whom
she had Never belonged, and the poor
little dove of peace she had sent out
came back with its feathers ruffled 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-
tion which became afterward the home
of Uncle Tom and Eliza, and about
the same time she met Topsy. Topsy
came TO Cincinnati in the company of
a wealthy Louisiana family which had
liberated its slaves and It was in try
ing TO teach her religion that the
famous conversation occurred do
you know who made your" Nobody
as I knows on; 'spect l growed"
In 1886 Cincinnati became the hot
bed of anti-slavery talk. Mr.. Theodore
Weld of Lane Theological seminary led
the movement. He had spent much
of his ife& the midst of slavery and
was dedicating the remainder of his
life to its overthrow. His ablest as
sistant, the editor of an abolitionist
paper, was DR.. Birney, a slave owner
from Alabama, who had freed his
slaves, and come away to fight the
system.
1t was natural that with these
friends Mrs. Stowe should have had
kindly feelings toward the south,
should have thought that it was rapid
ly Weakening TO the horror Of slavery,
and th<at the majority of its citizens
were aExiously trying to put an end
TO il. AS far as the cause" was con-
cerned her associations were with
anti-slavery southerners rather than
the northern abolitionists.
Henry Ward Beecher edited in Gin
cinnati a small daily paper, his sister,
now Mrs. Stowe, helping him. She
records an incident of the agitation
in Cincinnati that shows the fighting
blood oS the young man who was to
become Nhe great preacher.
DIR. Birney's abolitionist paper was
wrecked by mob, and she writes:
MANY respectable citizens are in
clined TO wink at the outrage in con-
sideration of its moving in the line
of their prejudices." Henry Ward
Beecher did not wink. He feared an