Harriet Beecher Stowe was born on June 14, 1811 in Litchfield Connecticut. She was the seventh of nine children. Her Father was the well-known Congregational minister Lyman Beecher. Harriet's mother, Roxana Beecher, died when her daughter was five years old. The first twelve years of her life were spent in Litchfield, which was a famous resort of ministers, judges, lawyers and other men of superior accomplishments. Around the age of twelve she moved to Hartford where her sister, Catherine, had opened a school. While there she was known as an absent minded and moody young lady, odd in her manner and habits, but a good scholar, excelling especially in the writing of compositions. In 1832, her father accepted the presidency of Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio she followed her family. On January 5th, 1836 she married Professor Calvin E. Stowe, a man of learning and distinction. .
The Stowe's family was not rich, so Harriet's life was sometimes conflicted between the necessities of motherhood and writing. She eventually bore six children, with whom her writing competed. Harriet Beecher Stowe died in 1896 at the age of 85 in Hartford, Connecticut. She may have died but her meory lives on in Uncle Tom's Cabin, which remains on of the most influential American Texts written by either man or women. .
While she wrote at least ten novels, Harriet Beecher Stowe is mainly known for her first Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe was catapulted in international fame, speaking out against slavery both in America and Europe. She published A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1853 documenting the realities on which her first novel was based. In 1856 she published her second novel Dred. Stowe's other novels include Oldtown Folks and The Pearl of Orr's Island. These other novels are based on the domestic lives of the northeastern region. .
The historical significance of her anti-slavery writing has tended to draw the attention away from her other work.
