Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers

Harriet Beecher Stowe opposed slavery with a passion, but she was a housewife with six children. What could she do? “You can write,” her sister-in-law said. So she did. In 1852 her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published, and Harriet became an instant celebrity. This shouldn’t have been surprising. Harriet was a Beecher, and all the Beechers made names for themselves.

Her father, Lyman Beecher, was the most renowned preacher in America, but he didn’t expect much from his girls. He was collecting boys because he wanted a lot of preachers in the family. He ended up with seven preachers in the family, but in her own way Harriet was the best of the lot. She became famous not just at home but all over Europe as well. When she traveled to England, crowds gathered in the streets just to see her, and thousands attended her public meetings. President Lincoln called her “the little lady who made this big war.”

What was she like, this nineteenth-century daughter, wife, and mother who said, “Writing is my element” and “I have determined not to be a mere domestic slave”? Award-winning biographer Jean Fritz brings this remarkable woman and her extraordinary family to life.