REMEMBERING HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

A reflection by The Rev. Jo Beecher

On July 1, the Episcopal Church remembers the Feast of Harriett Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In 1850 my great-great-great aunt Hattie sat down at her kitchen table in Brunswick, Maine, to write a story about what she knew about slavery. She didn’t really know that much, but she felt called by God to share that little that she did know. She had lived before moving to Brunswick in Cincinnati, Ohio, across the Ohio River from slave-holding Kentucky and her house had been a stop on the Underground Railroad. She had never been in the South but one of her brothers had and had shared his impressions of slavery and the plantation system with her. Uncle Tom’s Cabin has been much maligned for its stereotypical portraits of African-American slaves and for it’s preachy, treacly style. She was the daughter and sister of famous preachers and as a woman, her only way to carry out the family call to preach was on paper. On the other hand, the influence of the book in its time is unquestionable. It was published by chapters in a widely read abolitionist weekly magazine, the Washington National Era, and was the most widely sold book of the 19^th century after the Bible. Aunt Hattie was received in the White House by President Lincoln who allegedly said, “So this is the little lady who started this great big war.” 

“I wrote what I did because as a woman, as a mother I was oppressed and broken-hearted, with the sorrows and injustice I saw, because as a Christian I felt the dishonor to Christianity — because as a lover of my country I trembled at the coming day of wrath.”

I think my aunt Hattie and her book can teach us something about the times we live in today. The first time I read Uncle Tom’s Cabin I was appalled by the style of writing and did not get much out of it. But now I understand that she wrote about something she had to write about in the way that she could. And that way clearly resonated with hundreds of thousands of people. We are living through times in which, frankly, we are still dealing with the issues my aunt tried to get people to look at. She was one of the first voices to say Black Lives Matter, when slaves’ lives were not even acknowledged to be human lives. She said, “I wrote what I did because as a woman, as a mother I was oppressed and broken-hearted, with the sorrows and injustice I saw, because as a Christian I felt the dishonor to Christianity — because as a lover of my country I trembled at the coming day of wrath.” Many of us are broken-hearted at the sorrows and injustices we see in our country. The suffering from this pandemic and the divisions and fear swirling around it – tied together with the social outcry over the unhealed sin of racial injustice. I think we would do well to take inspiration from Harriet Beecher Stowe, to listen to what God is calling us to do in response to this moment. We can trust that God will give us the words and the tools and the compassion and the stamina to respond as Christians. We may not have the best words. We cannot personally change many things. But we can do something. And we can trust that God will use us to bring about God’s will.
Image credits: Barnes & Noble, The Rev. Jo Beecher

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JOIN US FOR VIRTUAL COFFEE HOUR
June 28, 2020 10:45 am

OTHER COMMUNITY OFFERINGS

While we find ourselves at home and unable to travel, St. Paul's (Seattle) parishioner and CS Lewis scholar Kim Gilnett extends the invitation to join him on the following virtual pilgrimage: CS Lewis’ Oxford, a Virtual Tour – June 28^th 3:00pm. This class will be a virtual tour of CS Lewis Oxford with over 160 photographs. Click here to register. Space is limited, so register today!