Harriet stowe
Harriet stoweThe woman credited with sparking the Civil War came to Christ at thirteen, during one of her father’s sermons. She wrestled throughout her eighty-five years with questions and spiritual conflicts for she endured grave trials: her mother died while Harriet was a very young child; her husband, though an erudite theologian, could not provide financially and suffered bouts of poor health; she lost four children tragically; and she enjoyed the acclaim of the rich and powerful of her generation. In spite of these upheavals, her basic faith in the Lord Jesus Christ held and sustained her.
Harriet was born in Connecticut in 1811, the daughter of Lyman Beecher. He was a persuasive preacher, theologian, a founder of the American Bible Society who was active in the anti slavery movement, and the father of thirteen children. Her mother who died when Harriet was four years old, was a woman of prayer, asking the Lord to call her six sons into the ministry. All eventually preached; Henry Ward Beecher, the youngest son became the most prominent. After her mother’s death, Harriet grew close to her sister, Catherine, teaching in her school and writing books with her soon after she turned thirteen. Harriet was brilliant and bookish, and idolized the poetry of Lord Byron.
When her father became president of Lane Theological Seminary in Ohio, she moved with him and met Calvin Stowe -- a professor and clergyman who fervently opposed slavery. He was nine years her senior and the widower of a dear friend of hers, Eliza Tyler. Their subsequent marriage in 1836 was born of the common grief they shared. In later years, Mark Twain’s daughter Susy Clemens saw Calvin Stowe merrily reported to her father, “Santa Clause has got loose.”(Husbands and Wives, William J. Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 1989, page 111).
The work of the Underground Railroad deeply touched both Calvin and Harriet. They sheltered fugitive slaves in their home until they moved to Maine when he accepted a position at Bowdoin College in 1850. Throughout the years their loving commitment grew solidly. Harriet wrote to her husband of many years, "If you were not already my dearly beloved husband, I should certainly fall in love with you."
Within two years, she had three children, increasing household responsibilities and financial worries as Calvin’s salary from the college diminished. As a homemaker she lovingly and kindly cared for her children while she wrote for local magazines and papers. Over the years she wrote ardent letters to her surviving children, admonishing them to seek Christ and conform their hearts and lives to Him.
Although her first forty-one years were lived in gentile privation and anonymity, she quickly became a literary sensation when they published Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Success never lessened her need for her husband. Both encouraged and comforted each other as storms dampened their spiritual fires. Calvin encouraged her to establish a writing career, and served as her literary agent in both America and...
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