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Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (/stoʊ/; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), depicting the harsh conditions enslaved African Americans experienced. 

The book reached an audience of millions as a novel and play and became influential in the United States and Great Britain, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North while provoking widespread anger in the South. Stowe wrote 30 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential both for her writings and public stances and debates on social issues of the day.

In 1832, at the age of 21, Harriet Beecher moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to join her father, who had become the president of Lane Theological Seminary. There, she also joined the Semi-Colon Club, a literary salon and social club whose members included the Beecher sisters, Caroline Lee Hentz, and Salmon P. Chase (future governor of Ohio and Secretary of the Treasury under President Lincoln), Emily Blackwell, and others.

Cincinnati's trade and shipping business on the Ohio River was booming, drawing numerous migrants from different parts of the country, including many escaped slaves, bounty hunters seeking them, and Irish immigrants who worked on the state's canals and railroads. In 1829 the ethnic Irish attacked blacks, wrecking areas of the city and trying to push out these competitors for jobs. 

Beecher met some African Americans who had suffered in those attacks, and their experience contributed to her later writing about slavery. Riots occurred again in 1836 and 1841, also driven by native-born anti-abolitionists.

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Uncle Tom's Cabin

George Raveling
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