Harriet Beecher-Stowe

Harriet Beecher-Stowe was a social activist and author best known for her anti-slavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1811. She was born to Lyman Beecher, a religious leader and stay at home mother Roxanna Foote. Her father was one of the most known and well respected pre-Civil War era Evangelical preachers that were determined to shape the social direction that his nation took. Her mother was a novel reading woman brought up in an Episcopalian and cosmopolitan family. As such Beecher grew up in an artistic family and studied painting in school and produced spectacular portraits. Unfortunately, her mother died when Harriet was only five and her father had to remarry. From this point on, Catherine Beecher who was Beecher’s oldest sister became the most influential female voice in her life. It was from her sister and her father that she got the values that would inspire her to write her social and cultural change novels starting with “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”