Harriet Beecher Stowe

Saturday, March 22nd, 1852. The day Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published. The day people in the North celebrated, and people in the South were outraged. That Saturday was also the day that one woman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, knew she had made a difference. She had been a hero.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/files/images/HD_stoweHB2c.jpg)

Harriet Beecher Stowe was full of hero qualities. One of the hero qualities that Harriet had was integrity. She had integrity because she wrote and published books during a time when women weren’t encouraged to speak out. She published a book called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which was said to help end slavery. Since the book was against slavery, it was soon banned in the South. This though, was after 300,000 copies had already been sold in the United States [in the first year]. People in the South disdained her. They were greatly outraged. President Lincoln, who was also against slavery, even said: “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great [Civil] war!" Even with all the negative comments and criticizing she and her book received, Harriet kept working on the sequel to her book. She would not let slavery go on any longer. The cruelty had to stop.

Another hero quality Harriet Beecher Stowe had was bravery. Harriet had bravery because she kept writing anti-slavery books even when she and her family received threat letters and packages every day. One of these threat packages was said to contain a slave’s bloody severed ear. These threats didn’t scare Harriet at all, and she completed and published the sequel to “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, which was titled “A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin.” This book was also a national best-seller.

The final hero qualities Harriet Beecher Stowe had was kindness and selflessness. This was because she and her husband both took part in the secret Underground Railroad. Since both of them were strongly against slavery, Harriet and her husband Calvin decided to help the escaping slaves. They sheltered them in their Ohio home for the few nights they stayed there. Harriet and her husband helped the slaves get that much closer to freedom, and a better life. Harriet offered them a safe place to stay, decent food, and clean water, even though she didn’t know them. She also risked getting prosecuted under the Fugitive Slave Law. This is because the law stated that anyone who helped hide slaves or who aided fugitive slaves in any way could be prosecuted.

Harriet Beecher Stowe did a lot in her life to help others. To follow in her footsteps, I am going to try to have integrity, bravery, kindness, and selflessness. To have integrity, I will try to keep working to reach my goals instead of stopping when things get really tough. To have bravery, I will try new things instead of immediately wimping out. For example, I will try new exotic foods and go zip-lining when my family and I go back to my home-state, Iowa. To have more kindness, I will help everyone in need. For example, if someone drops their pile of books, I will make more of an effort to help him/her pick them up instead of just walking by. Finally, to follow in Harriet’s footsteps and be selfless, I will let others have things before I get them. For example, if someone at a clothing store really wants a t-shirt I am holding, and it’s the last one in the store, I will let him/her have it.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an author, an advocate, and a abolitionist, but most of all, she was a hero. She stood up for what she believed in, and went through many obstacles to reach her goals. She helped and fought for the freedom of others, when she had never met them. She is full of hero qualities.