Meet Harriet Beecher Stowe, portrayed by Ellen Pope

Faculty, staff, and students will have the opportunity to meet American abolitionist and novelist, Harriet Beecher Stowe, portrayed by Ellen Pope, at 11:00 a.m., Monday, February 25, in the theatre at WVU Parkersburg. 

While she wrote at least ten adult novels, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) is predominantly known for her first, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Begun as a serial for the Washington anti-slavery weekly, the National Era, it focused public interest on the issue of slavery, and was deeply controversial. In writing the book, Stowe drew on her personal experience: she was familiar with slavery, the antislavery movement, and the underground railroad because Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Ohio, where Stowe had lived, was a slave state. Following publication of the book, she became a celebrity, speaking against slavery both in America and Europe. She wrote A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853) extensively documenting the realities on which the book was based, to refute critics who tried to argue that it was inauthentic; and published a second anti-slavery novel, Dred in1856. In 1862, when she visited President Lincoln, legend claims that he greeted her as "the little lady who made this big war”-- the war between the states.

The February 25 program is sponsored by the WVU Parkersburg Social Justice Committee in observance of Black History Month.  It is free and open to the public.