Unit 4: The Secret Road to Freedom (1èreG_gr1)

Those who diced with Death: Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe was a white woman who was one of the best known abolitionists and a novelist. When she was a young mother in the 19^th century, she lost her son, Charlie because of cholera.

Through her pain, she felt connected with the slave mothers who also lost their children due to slavery. That was how she wrote her famous novel entitled “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.

Her book changed the minds of Americans because she humanized the victims of slavery by giving them emotions in her book. In fact, she used emotion energy of the loss of her son to give that emotion to the slaves she depicted in her book.

She wrote this book after the loss of her son. She had thought about it before, but this sad event made her finally write it. As she was writing it, she felt inspired as if someone else was writing it.

Eventually, her book was successful as there were 245,000 copies sold. It made people aware that slavery was not right and it encouraged people to put an end to slavery.

Homework: Learn the lesson.