Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American author and abolitionist, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on 14 June 1811. She grew up in a large and famous religious family, the Beechers, and later lived in Ohio, Maine and Connecticut. Her years in Cincinnati, close to the slave state of Kentucky, shaped her understanding of slavery and of the people who fled it.

She wrote steadily to help support a growing family. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which appeared in 1850s America and reached readers around the world, made her one of the most talked-about writers of her time. It stirred public feeling against slavery and remains one of the most influential American novels, though its portrayals are now also debated. She also wrote later novels of New England life, along with sketches and stories. She died on 1 July 1896.