Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1896 — UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE AND HER WORK. J)ays of the Greatest Wont* an Writer Ajnerica H a a Ever Pro-ducei-i4rS# the Famons Fiction Came to Be Written. -’V. ?S Woman’s Great Work. Whatever may be the purpose of the aged and obscure negro of Lexington, Kj. In setting up the claim that he is the original from which Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe drew the character of Unde Tom in the well-known story of “Unde Tom’s Cabin.” it will scarcely

be regretted that it has called public attention once more to the first and greatest woman writer America has ever produced. In this era of charity and good fellowship may we not hope that the venerable negro is not a veritable impostor?

HARRIET BEECHES STOWE AT 42.

May It not be that in the puerility of bin oW age Jtis childish fancy conceived this vagary and it is to hitn a reality?* , f The public will accept at once, and .without a dissenting voice, the statement of the distinguished author that Unde Torn had no living prototype, but the character was her own creation, j She needed no "living prototype.” The j genius with which she was endowed, I and the education she received gave her the creative power, and the times in ' which she lived called it forth. To my mind the question of how she came to write this wonderful story is easily answered. She was born at Litchfield, Conn., and was one of a family of six, all of whom became distinguished in the particular fields of labor they had chosen, and she, perhaps, the most distinguished of them all. She was carefully educated and gave early promise of the intellectual powers that afterwards characterized her works. She imbibed from association and training the Puritanical ideas of right and justice characteristic of the New England people, and was taught to believe that all men should have political and religious freedom. Her father removed to Cincinnati to accept the presidency of a theological school when she was a young woman, and she and her sister Intended to found a school for young women, but she married Prof. Stowe before their plans were, matured. Cincinnati was on the borderland of slavery where

she came in-contact with fugitive slaves and heard their stories of wrongs and cruelty. She visited the Southern plantations and tution” In all its phases. She witnessed the scenes at block and whipping posts, Heretofore she had known nothing of slavery, except what she had read. Now she witnessed It in all Its hideous derails. She came in contact mostly with those who were feeing from the cruel lash. She saw the slava tenders and overseers whose

long association with the cruei system had hardened them to every appeal of humanity when made in behalf of the inferior race. This all came about at a time when a large class of intelligent people at the North were clamoring for the emandpation of the slaves. It was an opportune time for Mrs. Stowe to express her disapprobation of an institution that had be*n miscalled “divine.” Among her first efforts was the “Death of Uncle,” which appeared in the Washington Era. As this article met with great favor she began the serial of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which appeared from week to week in the Era. It was soon published in book form and sold and read everywhere. Some efforts were made to interdict its sale in the South, but this only served to increase th» demand. Mrs. Stowe

was now famous. She bad “buildcd better than she knew." Looking back through the mist of years at the changes this simple story contributed so much to bring about, may we not believe it was an inspiration? The fact that she continued to write for many years, and that no one of her interesting works ever approached “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” either in popularity or power of creative genius, goes far to strengthen this assumption. However tills may be. if may fairly be presumed that the results of her work

went far beyond any conceptions she may have had of its results. It was perhaps overdrawn and did injustice to a large class of slave owners who were humane and just, but it was, nevertheless, a faithful portrayal of the wrongs that had grown out of a system that at best was unworthy of a people who had said and done so much for human liberty. It can never be known how far-reach-ing in its influence this patriotic story was, or just what part it played in the great civil struggle, whose painful

memories have come down to us through the vista of over thirty years, but it i# jeertain that the “divinity”, with which the of slavery had been Invested was drawn aside by the perusal of. (Ms b90.1t, .and thousands of young ufepin tfee'Sohtliern and border StatefL,were le’d by ft to battle for freedom wbp would otherwise have cast wlthjthe Confederacy. But perhaps its and most Important mission was to educate and arouse the great Northern M i ■ .VI, '.>!**

heart to an appreciation of the inlqul. ties of slavery, and to rally around tha banner of freedom the wealth, intelligence and patriotism of the people. It seemed fitting that after the great struggle had ended with results as Important and helpful to the vanquished as to the victors, that Mrs. Stowe.

crowned with honor and the blessings of two races of people, should make her home for a time on the banks of the St Johns river amidst the evergreen glades and perennial flowers of Florida. One can but wish that she might have found there “the fountain of perpetual youth,” so diligently sought by Ponce De Leon, but which unfortunately existed only in the visionary mind of that noted Spanish adventurer. She now resides with her daughter In Hartford, Conn., during the winter, and with the family alternately visits the South and Sag Harbor summers. Her mental faculties have waned considerably during the past year, but her physical health is good, and she is surrounded with peace and comfort. It is reported as she grows older that of all the characters she created those existing in her masterpiece till her mind powerfully, and she talks, dreams and thinks of them for days at a time. Her children have preserved numerous momentoes of her literary past, among them being the first page of the original manuscript of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin'.” “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” itseslf, as repre-

sented in the average stage production, bears little similarity to the one which Mrs. Stowe idealized. It was at Washington. the county seat of Mason County, Kentucky, during a visit to friends, that the gifted authoress first conceived the great work of her life. Here she studied their characteristics and environment, and became familiar with the inside workings of the plantation system: At the local court house, which has recently been demolished in part, she witnessed a sale of slaves, a common event in 1833, and this formed the basis lor one of her most stirring scenes, the escape of Eliza on the ice, the steamboat and underground railway episodes also having the basis of actual identity and location. Louis George Clark, who claims to be the original George Harris, from whom Mrs. Howe took her idea of “Uncle Tom,” is living at Lexington, Ivy., and is 84 years old. He was born a slave in Madison County, that State, in 1811. He claims that he related the story of his experience with an inhuman overseer, who whipped one of his slaves to death, to Mrs. Stowe personally, and that this incident and many episodes in his own life'later appeared in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” It is a pleasure to the thousands of .Mrs. Stowe’s admirers, whose memories back\to ante-bellum days; to realize tjjfit she has beefa permitted to see the full fjuitlon of her labors, and prayers, and to rejoice, over a country now iridfeed free and united, and now, f fis thesi# 1 many friend? read this brief her, after her long retiracy 'lfom public view, I am sure ali will lie that in her old age she is tranquil and lovable and grand as the most prominent figure in our literary history, and will join me in sending greetings to her in her New England home. ■ .j, S. W. SCOTT.

FIRST PAGE OF ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT OF “UNCLE TOM'S CABIN." From the New York Journal.

“UNCLE TOM’S CABIN.” From the New York Journal.

THE BOGUS “UNCLE TOM.”

MRS. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE AT 60.