In 1832, when Stowe’s father Lyman accepted the position of president of the esteemed Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, she went with him. There, she met some of the great minds and reformers of the day, including noted abolitionists. Smitten with the landscape of the West, she published her first book, Primary Geography, in 1833, which celebrated the diverse cultures and vistas she encountered. In 1836, she met and married Calvin Stowe, a professor at the Lane Seminary. He encouraged her writing, they had seven children, and weathered financial and other problems during their decades-long union. Stowe would write countless articles, some were published in the renowned women’s magazine of the times, Godey’s Lady’s Book. She also wrote 30 books, covering a wide range of topics from homemaking to religion in nonfiction, as well as several novels.
The turning point in Stowe’s personal and literary life came in 1849, when her son died in a cholera epidemic that claimed nearly 3000 lives in her region. She later said that the loss of her child inspired great empathy for enslaved mothers who had their children sold away from them. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which legally compelled Northerners to return runaway slaves, infuriated Stowe and many in the North. This was when Stowe penned what would become her most famous work, the novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Originally serialized in the National Era, Stowe saw her tale as a call to arms for Northerners to defy the Fugitive Slave Act. The vivid characters and great empathy inspired by the book was further aided by Stowe’s strong Christianity.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was released as a book in March 1852, selling 300,000 copies in the US in the first year. It was later performed on stage and translated into dozens of languages. When some claimed her portrait of slavery was inaccurate, Stowe published Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book of primary source historical documents that backed up her account, including the narratives of notable former slaves Frederick Douglass and Josiah Henderson. Southern pro-slavery advocates countered with books of their own, such as Mary Henderson Eastman’s Aunt Phillis’s Cabin; Or, Southern Life as It Is. This work and others like it attempted to portray slavery as a benevolent institution, but never received the acclaim or widespread readership of Stowe’s.
Stowe used her fame to petition to end slavery. She toured nationally and internationally, speaking about her book and donating some of what she earned to help the antislavery cause. She also wrote extensively on behalf of abolition, most notably her “Appeal to Women of the Free States of America, on the Present Crisis on Our Country,” which she hoped would help raise public outcry to defeat the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act.
During the Civil War, Stowe became one of the most visible professional writers. For years, popular folklore claimed that President Abraham Lincoln, upon meeting Stowe in 1862, said, “So you’re the woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” That quote, published in a 1911 biography of Stowe by her son Charles, has been called into question, as Stowe herself and two others present at the meeting make no reference to it in their accounts (and Charles was only a boy at the time of the meeting).
In 1873, Stowe and her family moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where she remained until her death in 1896, summering in Florida. She helped breathe new life into the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, and was involved with efforts to launch the Hartford Art School, later part of the University of Hartford.

A virada na vida pessoal e literária de Stowe ocorreu em 1849, quando seu filho morreu em uma epidemia de cólera que ceifou quase 3.000 vidas em sua região. Posteriormente, ela disse que a perda de seu filho inspirou grande empatia pelas mães escravizadas que tiveram seus filhos vendidos. A aprovação da Lei do Escravo Fugitivo de 1850, que obrigava legalmente os nortistas a devolver escravos fugitivos, enfureceu Stowe e muitos no Norte. Foi quando Stowe escreveu o que se tornaria sua obra mais famosa, o romance Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Originalmente serializado na Era Nacional, Stowe viu seu conto como um chamado às armas para os nortistas desafiarem a Lei do Escravo Fugitivo. Os personagens vívidos e a grande empatia inspirada pelo livro foram ainda auxiliados pelo forte cristianismo de Stowe.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin foi lançado como livro em março de 1852, vendendo 300.000 cópias nos Estados Unidos no primeiro ano. Posteriormente, foi encenado no palco e traduzido para dezenas de idiomas. Quando alguns alegaram que seu retrato da escravidão era impreciso, Stowe publicou Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, um livro de documentos históricos de fonte primária que respaldava seu relato, incluindo as narrativas dos notáveis ex-escravos Frederick Douglass e Josiah Henderson. Os defensores da escravidão sulista contestaram com seus próprios livros, como A cabana da tia Phillis de Mary Henderson Eastman; Ou Southern Life as It Is. Esta obra e outras semelhantes tentaram retratar a escravidão como uma instituição benevolente, mas nunca recebeu a aclamação ou o público leitor generalizado de Stowe’s.

Stowe usou sua fama para fazer uma petição pelo fim da escravidão. Ela viajou nacional e internacionalmente, falando sobre seu livro e doando parte do que ganhou para ajudar a causa antiescravista. Ela também escreveu extensivamente em nome da abolição, mais notavelmente seu “Apelo às Mulheres dos Estados Livres da América, sobre a Crise Atual em Nosso País”, que ela esperava que ajudasse a aumentar o clamor público para derrotar a Lei Kansas-Nebraska de 1854.

Durante a Guerra Civil, Stowe se tornou um dos escritores profissionais mais visíveis. Durante anos, o folclore popular afirmou que o presidente Abraham Lincoln, ao conhecer Stowe em 1862, disse: “Então você é a mulher que escreveu o livro que deu início a esta grande guerra”. Essa citação, publicada em uma biografia de Stowe em 1911 por seu filho Charles, foi questionada, já que a própria Stowe e outras duas pessoas presentes na reunião não fazem referência a ela em seus relatos (e Charles era apenas um menino na época de a reunião).

Em 1873, Stowe e sua família se mudaram para Hartford, Connecticut, onde ela permaneceu até sua morte em 1896, passando o verão na Flórida. Ela ajudou a dar uma nova vida ao Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art e esteve envolvida nos esforços para lançar a Hartford Art School, mais tarde parte da University of Hartford. Por Debra Michals, PhD | 2017.