Harriet Beecher Stowe, In a Remarkable 6-Page Unpublished Letter, Reckons With Her Role in the Coming of the Civil War, and Bemoans But Embraces Its Personal Toll

“To begin with my boy Fred. He enlisted as a private immediately on the news of the fall of Sumpter saying to me ‘Mother if there is any one that ought to enlist it must be YOUR son. I shall feel eternally disgraced if I do not go.’

 

“It is the risk of life daily and hourly of sons and brothers that lites on our spirits and draws on our life. But if it frees our nation from this great sin for one year more just as it has been done the last year, we should count every sacrifice joy and I say it advisedly knowing what our boys are worth to us. Fred says to me often, ‘A man has but one life to give and if he has a chance to die for his country it is making the most of death.’”

In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law which required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate in returning them. Making institutions in the North responsible for enforcing slavery had the effect of galvanizing Northern sentiments against it. The law was fiercely resisted, and in 1851 in Boston, there were large demonstrations, protests and an attack on US Marshals at the courthouse.

In 1850 Harriet Beecher Stowe moved with her family to Brunswick, Maine, where her husband was teaching at Bowdoin College. Their home near the campus is now a National Historic landmark.

Stowe claimed to have a vision of a dying slave during a communion service at the college chapel, which inspired her to write his story. Moreover, tragedy in her own life led her to empathize with slaves, as she lost her eighteen-month-old son, Samuel Charles Stowe. As she stated, “Having experienced losing someone so close to me, I can sympathize with all the poor, powerless slaves at the unjust auctions. You will always be in my heart Samuel Charles Stowe.” On March 9, 1850, Stowe wrote to Gamaliel Bailey, editor of the weekly anti-slavery journal The National Era, that she planned to write a story about the problem of slavery: “I feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak… I hope every woman who can write will not be silent.”

The book she wrote – Uncle Tom’s Cabin – ended up being the best-selling novel of the 19th century, and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States alone. Northerners shed tears with its tragedies, Southerners fumed at its perspectives. It fueled the abolitionist cause in the 1850s and sharpened regional differences and perspectives about slavery. Stowe’s voice has become synonymous with those that urged the plight of the slave, and the fires it stoked smoldered on both sides of the Mason Dixon line. And as for Stowe, she became one of the great celebrities of the century.

In 1861 sectional friction led to the breakout of the Civil War. The anti-slavery cause was not an abstract notion to her. She used her prominence and platform to communicate with others active in the cause. And though she lived far from the battle lines, her family was on the front lines. Stowe’s son Fred dropped out of Harvard Medical to rush to the colors, and in 1863 he would be seriously wounded at Gettysburg. Several of Stowe’s nephews, two half-brothers, and brother-in-law all enlisted to fight for the Union. So she had a personal stake in the war in addition to a humanitarian one.

In November 1862, Stowe was invited to visit Washington to be present at a great Thanksgiving dinner provided for the thousands of fugitive slaves who had flocked to the city. She accepted the invitation the more gladly because her son’s regiment was encamped near the city, and she should once more see him. He was now Lieutenant Stowe having honestly won his promotion by bravery on more than one hard fought field. There she met the President Lincoln. Her son later reported that Lincoln greeted her by saying, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” Nothing prepared her for the attention she received as a result of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and now Lincoln himself laid some of the responsibility at her feet.

Thomas Denman was a British lawyer, judge and politician. He served as Lord Chief Justice between 1832 and 1850. His daughter, Mrs. Anne Cropper, was a prominent English abolitionist and correspondent with Stowe, Charles Dickens and others.

Less than a month after meeting President Lincoln, Stowe wrote Cropper a remarkable and apparently unpublished letter, one that illustrated the personal costs of the war to Stowe, and that she and her family recognized her role in the minds of the people in relation to bringing on the conflict. It also showed her belief that she would be willing to sacrifice a child to see the nation rid of the great scourge of slavery. We have found no other of Stowe having reached the market even approaching the importance of this letter, written during the war, immediately her visit with President Lincoln, and touching on so many key subjects.

Autograph letter signed, 7 pages, Christmas, December 25, 1862, to Mrs. Cropper. “Only the deep sadness and anxiety of life at this time could excuse my delaying so long to answer your very kind letter. I felt it never [so] gratefully, as the issues from England during our affliction generally been anything but kind. I was glad and we all were to hear such good tidings of your circle, to whom I now wish Christmas and New Years congratulations. In return for the things you told us of your welfare let me tell you what we have all been doing.

“To begin with my boy Fred. He enlisted as a private immediately on the news of the fall of Sumpter saying to me “Mother if there is any one that ought to enlist it must be YOUR son. I shall feel eternally disgraced if I do not go. At this time, his health was so delicate that I thought it was only throwing his life away. But he has borne the fatigues and hardships of camp life better than stronger men and has, gradually, been promoted. He is now Captain and Assistant Adjutant on the staff of General Steinwehr, Siegel’s division.

“Our family are largely represented in the fighting ranks. My brother’s son (Rev. C. Beecher) has just been wounded in the unfortunate affair before Fredericksburg. Brother Henry’s son is Lieutenant in the regular army at Fortress Monroe. Brother’s son is a Lieutenant on the same staff with Fred. My brother James Beecher is Col. of the 141 New York Volunteers. My brother Thomas chaplain in the same regiment.

“My girls have been busy all summer sewing for the soldiers making gowns, shirts and slippers for the hospitals and have showed ability to turn off a great deal work in this way.

“My husband’s health is better than it was when in England… I have mailed to you by this steamer a copy of the Atlantic Monthly, continuing a reply to the Address which the women of England sent to us in American in 1853. It continues a history of the Anti Slavery movement since that time. I want it to be read and I hope all my friends will do what they can to extend the circulation of it…..Write to Lady Hatherton to whom also I mail one. Please if you write to our Martha give her my love. My daughters are all well. Georgia sits by me smiling over her reading. They all send love to you and the children.

“Here at the North we do not feel this war in any point of material prosperity. Money is plenty, business brisk, the poor never better cared for. It is the risk of life daily and hourly of sons and brothers that lites on our spirits and draws on our life. But if it frees our nation from this great sin for one year more just as it has been done the last year, we should count every sacrifice joy, and I say it advisedly knowing what our boys are worth to us. Fred says to me often, ‘A man has but one life to give and if he has a chance to die for his country it is making the most of death.’ His life has been spared. But we never know when our turn is to come.

“Goodbye dear loving friend. We often talk of your dear circle warm and bright and full of life. Bye the by Mr. Scoville who you remember has married my Mr. Henry’s only daughter Harry whom you remember. He is seated as a pastor in a pretty country village.” A few lines are missing from one of the sheets, without the loss of any major content.

Perhaps the best letter of Harriet Beecher Stowe to ever reach the market, and apparently unpublished. This letter has been in a private collection for at least half a century.