Coil's Harriet Beecher Stowe is a biography of one of the most influential women of the 1800s. Well-written and organized, the book is enjoyable and informative to read, although it does not go into detail about any facet of Stowe's life. Coil's sources for her book come mainly from other materials that have been written about Stowe, although she does reference at times the works and letters of Stowe, herself.
Harriet Elizabeth Beecher was born on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut, to Lyman and Roxanna Foote Beecher. The seventh out of thirteen children, she early exhibited her brilliance. Sadly, her mother died while Harriet was only four years old, leaving the duties of raising the large Beecher family to her older sister, Catherine, who would play a large role in Harriet's life. Lyman Beecher was a domineering, intensely Christian man, and a fiery evangelist who helped to spark the nationwide temperance movement. He, too, would have a great influence on Harriet's life, although she would eventually come to disagree with his spiritual beliefs.
Harriet Beecher Stowe is famous for her writing of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the book which helped to make an entire nation aware of the horrors of slavery. She met her first Black people at her grandmother's house at the age of four, and even then, Harriet was confused because she did not understand why the Blacks were not treated as equals, when she was told that everyone was God's child. Harriet's father, as well as being a temperance leader, strongly denounced slavery, and this also contributed to Harriet's early awareness of the evils of slavery.
Harriet was very academic. She loved to read, and by age fourteen, she was teaching at her sister's school for girls, as well as attending classes. By age twenty-one, she was a full-time teacher at the school. However, she hated teaching, preferring to spend her time alone in her attic room, writing her feelings down in a journal or letters to friends.