Show WOMEN WO IN WARBy WAR II By Albert Payson Terhune erh HARRIET BEECHER STOWE Whose Book Y Was s a C Cause use of the I Civil War r r A woman plainly dressed and of I middle age was ushered Into the I library at the White House one winter winter winter win win- ter day in 1863 when the Civil war I Iwas was at its h height hight I From an arm chair by te fire a ablack ablack I black clad man rose to his feet as she came In He was very thin and andin andin I in his wrinkled face were written the cares of a nation He smiled as he I came carne forward to meet the visitor and he held out both huge hands in greet greet- ing greet I ingWell Well he exclaimed So youre you're the little woman who brought on this big war Its It's something of a a. re responsibility responsibility re re- isn't it The man was Abraham Lincoln The woman woman- was Harriet Beecher Stowe Here is the story of the deed she had done which brought on this I big war She was a clergyman's wife fragile of health and with a 8 spirit of fire From girlhood the thought of human slavery had filled her with fierce re re- re She longed to fight this national evil but for years she sought vainly for some effective weapon Her husbands husband's parish at one time was in Ohio There from the slave I states states to sout southward ward negroes were vere forever running for refuge Mrs Stowe and her husband and other Abolitionists eagerly helped the fugitives to hide from their pursuing masters One such refugee slave girl closely followed fed by her master and by officers officers officers of of- of the law came to Mrs Stowe Henry Ward Beecher and Dr I Stowe Stowe 1 Mrs Stowe's brother and her husband put husband put the girl In a covered wagon and carried her by night to a hiding place far back in the woods where her master would not find her This This This' adventure later formed the theme of the runaway slaves slave's escape from her pursuers in Uncle Undo Toms Tom's Cabin Some time Ume afterward Mrs Stowe was asked by a fellow abolitionist to write something t that at would make the whole nation know how accursed a thing slavery Is Ii She answered on impulse If I live I shall sham And almost at once she set to work mapping out the earlier chapters chapters chapters chap chap- of Uncle Toms Tom's Cabin or Life Among the Lowly For its chief Incidents in incidents incidents In- In she used facts that had been brou brought ht to her own notice or of which she had hear heard hearp i. i The characters were largely drawn from slaves and slave owners she had met in the Southwest Then when at last the story was as completed she sold it as a serial to toan toan toan an antislavery magazine The Era The price sho she received for the whole serial was only A Boston publisher named Jewett liked the story and offered to publish It in book form payl paying g the author a royalty of 10 per cent on all copies sold sold Three thousand copies were sold on on the first day of ot publication Three editions were exhausted in less than two weeks Mrs Stowe's royalties royalties royalties roy roy- for the first four months after the book was published amounted to more than She was all at once the most fa famous famous famous fa- fa woman of the hour And her Uncle Toms Tom's Cabin was sweeping over the whole world kindling everywhere everywhere everywhere every every- where a flame of resentment against slavery In the South the book was denounced as a a. mass o of malicious lies In the North it was hailed as asa asa asa a message from heaven It stirred public feeling against slavery as all th the pamphlets ts and orators orators orators ora ora- tors on earth had not been able to It carried its antislavery message across the seas In Great Britain alone ft It t sold more than copies It was translated into nineteen nineteen nineteen nine nine- teen foreign languages Higher and higher rose the tide of national resentment against slavery as Uncle Toms Tom's Cabin continued to grow In public favor And thousands thousands thousands thou thou- sands of p persons who had hated the Idea of warfare now began to clamor that the South be forced by armed intervention to free the slaves shives Small wonder then that President Lincoln should have sent for the storys story's author a and d should have recognized recognized recognized her share In the conflicts conflict's birth by saying to her I So youre you're the little woman who brought on this big war wan warl Copyright 1918 by bythe the Press Publishing Co the New York orl Evening World |