The searchlight. [volume] (Culbertson, Mont.) 1902-current, 1911-05-19
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birth OF Harriet Beecher Stowe
VIII be widely celebrated. A 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 II never
occurred TO the little woman" that
mere was anything about Uncle
Tom's 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 M,
OF the extreme abolitionist type. II
was her firm belief that the better
eiement In the south hated slavery
and that this element was much larger
than was commonly supposed. Then.
100, while she loathed the system with
all her heart she was willing to be.
iieve that II took more often than not
!
She gave Uncle Tom three masters.
ana TWO OF them were kind. She made
one OF her plantation owners detest
slavery and free his slaves. She want.
ed 10 make the. north understand that
the best southerners would co-operate
with them in a reasonable ATTEMPT
TO do away with the evil.
Never was a little lady more SIR
prised to find herself execrated, Her
feeling had been when she first wrote
'he DOCK that II would displease the
aoohtionists and bring sympathetic re-
spouse from the south-that is. II
anybody ever read 1t at all, which she
had doubted.
When the book appeared the world
turned topsy-turvy for her Garrison.
Win whom she never quite agreed
wrote her that she was no longer
aeusec-she had drawn II all on her.
sell. People In the south who had
not read the book. or who lad read I,
with their minds made I'D beforehand
thought her some sort OF n 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 On,
came back with it's feathers ruf,ed he.
yond recognition.
Inc question Of slavery came into
her life at an early period. II is not
true mat she knew nothing of the
peculiar institution" at first hand
She lived long in Cincinnati and met
there many southerners, and II was
on plantations where she yisited tba,
sne 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 plan,a.
ton which became afterward the bome |
OF Uncle Tom and Eliza. and abou, |
the same time she met Topsy. Tonsv
came to Cincinnati In the compapv NJ
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" "Nobodv
as ] 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 mucb
OF bis life in 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.
II was natural that with these
friends Mrs. Stowe should have had
kindly feelings toward the south.
should have thought that 1t was rapid.
iy wakening to the horror of slavery
ana that the majority Of its citizens
Were anxiously trying to out an end
TO II. As far as the cause" was CON-
cerned her associations were with
southerners rather than
the northern abolitionists.
Henry Ward Beecher edited in Gin
cinnau small daily paper, his sister.
now Mrs. Stowe. helping him. She
records an incident Of the agitation
In Cincinnati that shows the fish,iny
blood OF the young man who was To
become the great preacher.
DR.. Birney's abolitionist paper was
wrecked by a mob. and she writes.
Many respectable citizens are IN.
:lined to wink at the outrage in con-
lideration of its moving in the linz
n their prejudices." Henry Ward
Beecher. did not wink. He feared an