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Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)


When Harriet Beecher Stowe began writing a short story in 1851 about the cruelties of slavery, she little suspected that it would turn into a novel known as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and become the most widely read abolitionist tract of the day. Nor did she dream that it would play a significant part in widening the breach between North and South. But, in fact, that is what happened. While Uncle Tom solidified the North’s antagonism toward slavery, Southerners raged at this New England writer who had dared to condemn a society she had never seen.

The popularity of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the North led to its transformation into a play. Stowe’s disapproval of the theater prevented her from sharing in this enterprise. Nevertheless, soon after the staged version opened in New York in 1853, this portrait of her was installed in the theater lobby.


Alanson Fisher (1807–1884)
Oil on canvas, 1853
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

 

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