WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Harriet Beecher Stowe: a biography for girls cover

Harriet Beecher Stowe: a biography for girls

Chapter 3: CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF MRS. STOWE’S LIFE
By Martha Foote Crow
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

BiographiesChildren & Young Adult Reading

About This Book

Aimed at young readers, the biography traces a woman's upbringing in a lively parsonage, her schooling and early teaching, and the domestic routines and literary pursuits that shaped her imagination. It follows her experiments in drama and short fiction, her marriage and large family life, encounters with slavery that prompted a famous anti‑slavery novel, years of illness and financial struggle, travels and public readings, and the personal losses and ongoing commitment to social causes that marked her later years. The narrative interweaves chronological chapters with letters and excerpts to illuminate character, creative process, and the social and moral concerns behind her writing.

CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF MRS. STOWE’S LIFE

  • 1811, June 14. Harriet Elizabeth Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, daughter of Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher.
  • 1816. Death of her mother, Roxana Foote Beecher.
  • 1816-1818. Harriet attends Dame School.
  • 1817. Arrival of Harriet’s stepmother, Harriet Porter Beecher.
  • 1823. Harriet’s essay on Immortality read at school exhibition.
  • 1816, 1822, 1825, 1826, 1827. Visits to Foote homestead at Nut Plains, near Guilford, Connecticut.
  • 1824-1832. Harriet as pupil and afterwards as teacher at her sister Catherine’s school in Hartford.
  • 1825. Harriet writes a drama in blank verse called “Cleon.”
  • 1825. Harriet becomes a member of the First Church in Hartford.
  • 1826-1832. Pastorate of Dr. Beecher at Hanover Street Church in Boston. Harriet’s vacations at Boston and Guilford.
  • 1832-1852. Dr. Beecher head of Lane Theological Seminary at Cincinnati, Ohio. Residence of family at Walnut Hills, suburb of Cincinnati.
  • 1832-1834. Catherine and Harriet found a school at Cincinnati.
  • 1833. Harriet a member of the Semi-colon Club.
  • 1834. Harriet receives a prize for her first short story.
  • 1833. Harriet visits a plantation in Kentucky and sees slave life.
  • 1836, January. Marriage of Professor C. E. Stowe and Harriet Beecher.
  • 1836, September. Birth of Mrs. Stowe’s twin daughters, Harriet Beecher and Eliza Tyler.
  • 1838, January. Birth of her third child, Henry Ellis.
  • 1840, May. Birth of her fourth child, Frederick William.
  • 1843. Death of her brother, George, by accidental shooting.
  • 1836-1850. Years of sickness, poverty and struggle.
  • 1843, July. Birth of her fifth child, Georgiana May.
  • 1843. Publication of her first book of stories.
  • 1846-1847. Resort to a sanatorium in Vermont for her health.
  • 1848, January. Birth of her sixth child, Samuel Charles.
  • 1849. Cholera epidemic in Cincinnati; death of her youngest child.
  • 1850-1852. Residence of the Stowe family in Brunswick, Maine. Professor Stowe at Bowdoin College.
  • 1850, July. Birth of her seventh child, Charles Edward.
  • 1850. The Fugitive Slave Law and slavery agitation.
  • 1850, Mrs. Stowe’s vision of Uncle Tom’s death; writes first chapter.
  • 1851, June-1852, April. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” appears as a serial in “National Era.”
  • 1852, March 10. Publication of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in book form.
  • 1852-1853. 300,000 copies sold in United States.
  • 1852, August. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” selling in England at rate of 1,000 a week.
  • 1852. Mrs. Stowe in New York aiding escaped slaves.
  • 1852-1863. Residence of Stowe family in Andover, Mass. Professor Stowe in Andover Theological Seminary.
  • 1853, April-August. Professor and Mrs. Stowe traveling in England and Scotland.
  • 1853, May. Meeting at Stafford House, London. “Address” of 500,000 English women, and the “shackle-bracelet” presented to Harriet Beecher Stowe.
  • 1855-1856. Harriet Beecher Stowe aiding in the anti-slavery campaign in United States.
  • 1856, July-1857, June. Traveling in England, France and Italy.
  • 1856, August. Professor and Mrs. Stowe meet Queen Victoria.
  • 1857, June. Death by drowning of their son, Henry Ellis.
  • 1859, August-1860, July. Traveling in Switzerland and Italy.
  • 1861, June. Visits her son’s regiment at Jersey City.
  • 1862, November. Visit to Washington. The Contraband Dinner. Visit to Abraham Lincoln.
  • 1863, July 11. Battle of Gettysburg. Her son, Fred, struck by a fragment of a shell.
  • 1863-1870. Residence of the Stowe family in Hartford, Connecticut.
  • 1864. Mrs. Stowe becomes an attendant of the Episcopal Church.
  • 1869-1870. The Lady Byron Defence.
  • 1867-1886. Spends the winters in Mandarin, Florida.
  • 1872-1874. Giving public readings from her own works in New England and the west.
  • 1882, June 14. Garden party given by her publishers at the residence of ex-Governor and Mrs. Claflin at Newtonville, Mass., in honor of her birthday.
  • 1886. Death of Professor Stowe, of her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, and of her daughter, Georgiana May.
  • 1896, July 1. Death of Harriet Beecher Stowe, aged eighty-five, at Hartford, Connecticut.