Stowe

sto, Harriet Beecher (1811-1896), an American novelist. She was born at Litchfield, Connecticut. She was the sister of Henry Ward Beecher and the daughter of Dr. Lyman Beecher, a Congregational clergyman, later the president of Lane Theological Seminary at Cincinnati. In 1836 she married Calvin E. Stowe, professor of Hebrew at Lane, and later the occupant of a similar chair at Andover Theological Seminary.

As early as 1843, Mrs. Stowe published the Mayflower, a volume of Pilgrim tales previously contributed to periodicals. During 1851-1852, she contributed Uncle Tom's Cabin, a tale of negro slavery, to the pages of the National Era of Washington, D. C. It attracted ordinary notice as a serial, but, on republication in book form, it became the most widely and generally read book of the quarter century. Half a million copies were sold in the United States inside of five years. The sales in Great Britain were on a corresponding scale. It was translated into no less than nineteen foreign languages. Slaveholders were furious, claiming that the evils of slavery, the whipping of slaves, the parting of families, and the helplessness of young negro women were exaggerated beyond all reason. Unquestionably, the tale stirred up anti-slavery sentiment and may be regarded as a powerful though indirect cause of the Civil War. No other publication of the anti-slavery period of agitation had so great an influence in convincing political leaders that a free North and a slave South could not get on under one government. Uncle Tom's Cabin has been dramatized and is still a favorite theme on the stage. Of American plays, it competes with Rip Van Winkle in popularity.

Nina Gordon, or Dred, a tale of the Dismal Swamp, a second anti-slavery novel, considered by many a better piece of literary work, had only fair success. Mrs. Stowe then betook herself to her natural field, the writing of domestic New England tales. Named in order of appearance, the chief titles are The Minister's Wooing, The Pearl of Orr's Island, Old Town Folks, Pink and White Tyranny, My Wife and I.

In 1853 Mrs. Stowe went abroad and, on returning, published a volume of travel. In 1869 she dipped unfortunately into the domestic relations of Lady Byron and her unfaithful, poetic husband.

Mrs. Stowe died at Hartford, Connecticut, July 1, 1896.

See Beecher; Anti-Slavery Party

Strabo (63 B. C.-24 A. D.), a noted Greek geographer. The name is akin to strabismus and means squint-eyed. Strabo traveled extensively throughout the part of the world then known. He wrote a treatise on geography in seventeen books. Two books were devoted to a general introduction summarizing the knowledge of previous writers. He describes the earth as a globe standing still in the center of the universe. The moon, sun, and stars revolve about it. The habitable portion is a belt extending from Ireland to Ceylon, India. Outside of these limits, the world, according to Strabo, was inhabited by monsters. Eight books were devoted to a description of Europe, six books to Asia, and one book to Egypt and Lydia. See Ptolemy; Geography; Globe