Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), the daughter of the famous preacher Lyman Beecher, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1812. Her father became President of Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1832; and in 1833 she was married to Calvin E. Stowe, a professor in the seminary. Her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was first published in 1852 as a serial in the National Era magazine and later in book form, is one of the most widely known and historic volumes in the entire range of American literature. It is a work of fiction that, by means of the pathetic picture that it draws of the ills of slave life and the cruelties involved in slave ownership, did much to precipitate the American Civil War (1861-1865). Mrs. Stowe published more than forty volumes in all, many of them being works of fiction. Her Religious Poems appeared in 1867. Her book about the evils of slavery, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is credited with raising the passions that ignited the American Civil War.
Lane Theological Seminary
Beecher, Lyman
Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) was born at New Haven, Connecticut, the descendant of one of the founders of the New Haven colony. In 1797 he graduated from Yale, having studied under Timothy Dwight. He preached in Presbyterian and Congregational churches in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York before accepting the pastorate of the Second Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati. Here he became president of the newly established Lane Theological Seminary. He was a well-known opponent of Unitarianism, an eloquent preacher, an advocate of temperance, and the father of seven sons who became Congregational ministers and two daughters who became famous writers, especially Harriet who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. His style of preaching and the causes he fought for influenced preachers for several generations.