Welcome to the conversation!


Welcome to the conversation!

Harriet Beecher Stowe's (1811-1896) best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), made her the most famous American woman of the 19th century and galvanized the abolition movement before the Civil War.

The Stowe Center is a 21st-century museum and program center using Stowe's story to inspire social justice and positive change.

The Salons at Stowe programs are a forum to connect the challenging issues (race, gender and class) that impelled Stowe to write and act with the contemporary face of those same issues. The Salon format is based on a robust level of audience participation, with the explicit goal of promoting civic engagement. Recent topics included: Teaching Acceptance; Is Prison the New Slavery; Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; Creativity and Change; Race, Gender and Politics Today; How to be an Advocate

This blog will expand the reach of these community conversations to the online audience. Add your posts and comments to keep the conversation going! Commit to action by clicking HERE to stay up to date on Salon and social justice news.

For updates on Stowe Center programs and events, sign up for our enews at http://harrietbeecherstowe.org/email.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Thinking about #Stowe and #Lincoln on Presidents' Day

On this Presidents' Day, why not reflect on the meeting of Stowe and Lincoln?

Harriet Beecher Stowe and President Lincoln famously met in the early 1860s after Uncle Tom's Cabin had reached its peak success and the U.S. was exploding in a full-on Civil War. Stowe was on a trip to Washington D.C. with her daughter Hattie, when the two famous anti-slavery activists exchanged words.  

According to legend, President Lincoln remarked to Stowe: "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war..." Records also indicate that the President borrowed A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe's follow-up text to UTC, from a local library as he worked on the Emancipation Proclamation.


Lincoln Financial sculpture garden on the Riverfront Plaza in Hartford 

What do you think Lincoln meant when he suggested Stowe started the Civil War? What else do you think was said between Stowe and Lincoln?  

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