Juneteenth & Harriet Beecher Stowe

“Is this the little woman who made this great war?”

As we celebrate Juneteenth, it is worth considering how Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, used narrative to persuade a nation that slavery was indeed evil. She is credited with setting aflame the movement that ended slavery. Abraham Lincoln, during a meeting with Stowe, is said to have asked, “Is this the little woman who made this great war?”

This article goes into fascinating detail about Stowe’s upbringing and the life journey that brought her to the place of writing this transformative piece. “Social reform was the Beecher family business. They produced progressive ministers, educators, writers, and a feminist agitator.” She was deeply religious, and that is what brought her to believing in the human rights of all.

You might have noticed by now, this article was published in 2011, and interestingly makes the statement that “that American society is polarized as never before, with civility in shreds and partisanship so corrosive that government has become nearly inoperable.” We’ve journeyed even further in the 14 years since.

Today can we be persuaded, all of us, to view things a bit differently, to find our shared hopes and dreams, and incrementally work toward making life better, together. Let’s start with a few, with those within our reach, and incrementally find out way forward.

Let us, in this generation, consider how we can respectfully and authentically create understanding and engage around common values, to lift up our fellow humans, with dignity and in love.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/06/13/the-persuader-annette-gordon-reed