Loves of Harriet Beecher StoweThe author of Hawthorne in Concord “brings [Stowe] to life in all her glory, in a book at once so dramatic and so subtle that it rivals the best fiction” (Debby Applegate, author of The Most Famous Man in America). Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin forced an ambivalent North to confront the atrocities of slavery, yet it was just one of many accomplishments of the Beechers, the most eminent American family of the nineteenth century. Historian Philip McFarland follows the Beecher clan to the boomtown of Cincinnati, where Harriet’s glimpses of slavery across the Kentucky border moved her to pen Uncle Tom’s Cabin. We meet Harriet’s loves: her father Lyman, her husband Calvin, and her brother Henry, the most famous preacher of his time. As McFarland leads us through Harriet’s ever-changing world, he traces the arc of her literary career from her hard-scrabble beginnings to her ascendancy as the most renowned author of her day. Through the portrait of a defining American family, Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe opens into an unforgettable rendering of mid-nineteenth century America in the midst of unprecedented social and demographic explosions. To this day, Uncle Tom’s Cabin reverberates as a crucial document in Western culture. “Often dismissed even by her admirers as a pious faculty wife who just happened to write the book of the century, Harriet Beecher Stowe emerges in Philip McFarland’s biography in all her complexity and genius.” —Charles Calhoun, author of Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life and The Gilded Age |
From inside the book
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Page 7
... night we had a call from Arthur Tappan and Mr. Eastman.” The rich merchant Tappan was a benefactor of Lane; part of the delay in New York was to allow Dr. Beecher, when not preaching at churches and theaters, to solicit money from such ...
... night we had a call from Arthur Tappan and Mr. Eastman.” The rich merchant Tappan was a benefactor of Lane; part of the delay in New York was to allow Dr. Beecher, when not preaching at churches and theaters, to solicit money from such ...
Page 18
... nights for two and a half hours each to debate an issue that most of their countrymen would rather see left alone. The issue was what to do about slavery. V3612p01.pmd 2/16/07, 3:22 PM 18. loves. of. harriet. beecher. stowe. • 18.
... nights for two and a half hours each to debate an issue that most of their countrymen would rather see left alone. The issue was what to do about slavery. V3612p01.pmd 2/16/07, 3:22 PM 18. loves. of. harriet. beecher. stowe. • 18.
Page 25
... night”—a single specimen among several recollected—“as I was lying alone in my chamber with my little dog Brutus ... night after night with hardly a variation. What struck Calvin as oddest about the recurring visits was that, though ...
... night”—a single specimen among several recollected—“as I was lying alone in my chamber with my little dog Brutus ... night after night with hardly a variation. What struck Calvin as oddest about the recurring visits was that, though ...
Page 26
... night, alone in his room, Calvin was frightened by vast black tunnel-shaped clouds whirling about him in great agitation. “This alarmed me exceedingly, and I had a terrible feeling that something awful was going to happen.” Soon the ...
... night, alone in his room, Calvin was frightened by vast black tunnel-shaped clouds whirling about him in great agitation. “This alarmed me exceedingly, and I had a terrible feeling that something awful was going to happen.” Soon the ...
Page 27
... night with them.” Those Calvinists heard their son out unmoved. “'Poh! poh! you foolish boy,' replied my father, sternly. 'You've only been dreaming; go right back to bed, or I shall have to whip you.'” And Calvin was obliged to do so ...
... night with them.” Those Calvinists heard their son out unmoved. “'Poh! poh! you foolish boy,' replied my father, sternly. 'You've only been dreaming; go right back to bed, or I shall have to whip you.'” And Calvin was obliged to do so ...
Contents
3 | |
11 | |
23 | |
32 | |
43 | |
54 | |
63 | |
Uncle Toms Cabin | 74 |
Civil War | 157 |
Postbellum | 167 |
A Vindication | 177 |
Aftermath | 187 |
henry | 195 |
The Beechers | 197 |
Religion | 206 |
Brooklyn | 215 |
Reception | 83 |
Dark Places | 91 |
lyman | 99 |
To England | 101 |
Culture | 112 |
Looking Back | 121 |
Return to Europe | 131 |
Heartbreak | 140 |
The Ministers Wooing | 149 |
Changing America | 225 |
My Wife and I | 235 |
Scandal | 245 |
Inside the Home | 254 |
Trial | 263 |
Late Years | 274 |
notes | 293 |
works cited | 315 |
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Common terms and phrases
abolitionist American Andover appeared Autobiography of Lyman Boston Brooklyn brother Brunswick C. E. Stowe Calvin Stowe Calvinist Catharine Catharine Beecher century Charles Charley child Cincinnati congregation daughter dead dear death decade Dred earlier early east editor Edward England Essays family’s father feel felt Fred George Georgiana God’s Harriet Beecher Stowe Hartford Hatty heart Hedrick Henry Ward Beecher Henry’s husband Ibid Lady Byron Lady Byron Vindicated Lane Seminary Lane Theological Seminary later letter Litchfield living Lord Byron Lyman Beecher meanwhile minister Minister’s months mother never novel Ohio Plymouth Church poet poet’s Professor Stowe quoted readers Reverend sermons slave slavery South southern spirit story Stowe’s Theodore Tilton thing Tilton tion Uncle Tom’s Cabin Victoria Woodhull Walnut Hills wife wife’s woman women writing wrote York young