American Essence

‘The Blossoms of a Future Flower’: The Remarkable Hattie Stowe 

This installment of When Character Counts brings us a wife, mother, and writer who, by force of will and faith, battled injustice and adversity.
‘The Blossoms of a Future Flower’: The Remarkable Hattie Stowe 
A detail of a portrait of Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1853, by Alanson Fisher. Oil on canvas. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. Public Domain
Jeff Minick
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In her introduction to the 1879 edition of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote, “I did not write it. God wrote it. I merely did his dictation.”
This accreditation smacks of false modesty, yet Hattie, as her family and friends called her, was as surprised as anyone by the wild success of her 1852 novel. In “The Unexpected Mrs. Stowe,” David McCullough writes, “She herself expected to make no money from it; she thought it inadequate and was sure her friends would be disappointed with her.”
Jeff Minick
Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.