MRS BEECHER STOWE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 456, 22 March 1890, Page 3

MRS BEECHER STOWE.

Her Life and Her Works. The Story of Uncle Tom. (From Our Special Correspondent.) London, January 31. It is terribly sad that a life so full of intel" lectual energy and good works as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s, should be flickering out in mental obscurity. The old lady does not appear from all accounts to be unhappy. She wanders about the house crooning old hymns and giving little trouble, but recognises no one, not even her nearest and dearest

Mrs Stowe’s life-story (omitting the last sad chapter) has just been published at this side.

In the old town of Litchfield, Connecti cut, historic cradle of staunch men and women, was born Harriet Beecher, June 14, 1811 (Mrs McCray’s Life says 1812). Her father was the distinguished Calvinist, the Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher. Her mother, Roxanna Foote, who died venerated in memory, and a woman of remarkable piety, when the little Harriet was between 3 and 4 years old. Five brothers and sisters welcomed Harriet to this ■world ; but they that came after were Henry Ward and Charles. When the beloved mother was laid away, confusion rested upon the little ones, for their elders at one time told them she had been put in the ground, and at another time said she had gone to heaven. Thereupon The Little Golden-curled Henry, reasoning according to the light that was in him, was found one morning zealously digging under one of the windows of the house, When his sister Catherine asked him what he was doing, he said, with great simplicity, “ Why, I’m going to heaven to find mamma.” It was sad and lonely at Litchfield, and so her aunt, Harriet Foote, took her for a long visit at her grandmother’s, at Nub Plains, near Guilford, where, at the hand, of her energetic aunt, she was treated to catechism, needlework, and copious extracts from such works as the Bible, prayer-book, Lowth’s Isaiah, Buchanan’s Researches in Asia, Bishop Heber’s Life, and Dr. Johnson’s Works. During this winter Harriet committed to memory 27 Hymns and two long Bible chapters. Hand in hand this child of five went daily to school with her chubby, rosy-faced brother, Henry Ward. She had been married for a number of years, and had borne her seventh child before her reallife-work was commenced. Clay was advocating compromises in Congress ; Webster had just made a celebrated speech defending such compromises, and the Abolitionists of the North are filled with indignation. Mrs Stowe arrives in Boston, at the home of her brother Edward, friend and champion of the murdered Lovejov, of Alton, Illinois. The excitement is national. The Fugitive Slave Act is passed. Mrs Stowe arrives in Brunswick, her soul aflame with indignation at this new wrong inflicted by the slave power on the helpless and innocent. In one of the moving letters that Mrs Edward Beecher was sending from Boston to Brunswick, portraying the terrible things going on in Boston, she exclaimed, “ Now, Hattie, if I could use a pen as you can I would write somethiug that would make this whole nation feel What an Accursed Thing

slavery is.’ When this letter was read in the little parlour at Brunswick, Mrs Stowe rose from her chair, crushing the letter in her hand and said, ‘I will write something. I will if I live,’ Such was the origin of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

Bub the actual conception of one of its scenes came about as follows:—In February of 1851 Mrs Stowe is at Communion service

in the College Church at Brunswick. Suddenly the scene of Uncle Tom’s death passes before her mind. She returns home, writes down the vision, and reads it to her family. Two of her little ones sobbed, and one of them said, “ Oh, mamma, slavery is the most cruel thing in the world.” So the story began, wrought out of the heart of a woman Bursting with Anguish. The first chapter of “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin was sent jn April, 1851, to the “National Eraj” at Washington, and was begun in that paper on June 5. 1851. It was announced to be completed in three months, but it ran until April 1,1852. Intense was the excitement created by the story. The “National Era,” now suspended, was then of literary importance, with Dr. Gamaliel Bailey as editor and John Greenleaf Whittier corresponding editor. For the story as a serial Mrs Stowe received 300d015., but by an agreement with a Boston publisher—John P. Jewett — allowing Mrs Stowe 10 per cent, royalty, the story was brought out as a book on March 20, 1852. It was an edition of 5,000 copies. Within a year over 300,000 copies had been sold; and the heroine of many years’ struggle and poverty found herself, within four months after publication, in receipt of 10,000dols. in royalties. Letters Poured in upon her from England and America. In one letter Professor Stowe found a negro’s ear, pinned to a piece of card-board. To Lord Carlisle Mrs Stowe wrote: ‘ The effects of the book so far have been, I think, these : 1. To soften, and moderate the bitterness of feeling in extreme abolitionists. 2. To convert to abolitionist views many whom this same bitterness has repelled. 3. To inspire the free coloured people with self - respect, hope, and confidence. 4. To inspire universally through the country a kindlier feeling towards the negro race.” Writing Jan. 6, 1853, to the Earl of Shaftesbury, Mrs Stowe said :—“My book is as much under an interdict in some parts of the South as the Bible in Italy. Itis not allowed in the book-stores, and the greater part of the people hear of it and only through Grossly Caricatured representations in the papers, with garbled extracts from the book. After the sale of the first 1(;0,000 copies reaction set in, led in England by the “Times.” In America the religious paper, the New York “ Observer,” denounced the book as antiChristian, anti-Evangolical, and even slandered the author personally.