Introduction
"To Enlist the Sympathies both of England
and America"
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 inspired
her to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The novel, published in 1852
as a two-volume work, enjoyed tremendous success in the United States and abroad,
most notably in England. On the eve of publication, Stowe humbly presented a
copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Prince Albert and Queen Victoria.
In this accompanying letter (GLC01585) addressed to Prince Albert, Stowe acknowledges
the "less enlightened times" of England and the United States in
their treatment of black slaves. She appeals to the sympathetic
hearts of the British people and their Queen writing "the author is encouraged
by the thought that beneath the royal insignia of England throbs that woman’s
and mother’s heart."
In 1853, Stowe traveled to England on a book tour and was well
received by the people there. Uncle Tom’s Cabin continues
to be one of the most widely read books in the world.
Ana Luhrs, Reference Librarian
The Gilder Lehrman Collection
Transcript
To His Royal Highness Prince Albert
The author of this work feels that she has an apology for presenting it to Prince
Albert
because it concerns the great interests of humanity and from those noble & enlarged
views of human progress, which she has at different times seen in his public
speeches she has inferred that he has an eye & a heart for all that concerns
the development & welfare of the human family.
Ignorant of the forms of diplomatic address & the etiquette of rank, may
she be pardoned for speaking with the republican simplicity of her own country
as to one who possesses a nobility higher than that of rank or station.
This simple narrative is an honest attempt to enlist the sympathies both of England &
America in the sufferings of an oppressed race, to whom in less enlightened days
both English and America were unjust.
The wrong on England's part has been atoned in a manner worthy of herself, nor
in all her strength & glory, is there any thing that adds such lustre to
her name as the position she holds in relation to human freedom (may America
yet emulate her example!)
[2] The appeal is in greater part as it should be to the writer's own country,
but when
fugitives by thousands are crowding British shores she would enlist for them
the sympathy of British hearts.
We, in America, have been told that the throne of Earth's mightiest nation is
now filled
by One less adorned by all this world can give of power and splendour, than by
a good & noble heart – a heart ever ready to feel for the suffering
the oppressed and the lowly.
The author is encouraged by the thought that beneath the royal insignia of England
throbs that woman's & mother's heart. May she ask that He who is nearest
to her would present to her notice this simple story. Should it win from her
compassionate nature, pitying thoughts for those multitudes of poor outcasts
who have fled for shelter to the shadow of her throne, – it were enough –
May the blessing of [inserted: God] rest on the noble country from which
America draws her lineage, & on Her the Queen of it. Tho all other
thrones be shaken may hers founded deep in the hearts of her subjects, be established
to Her & to Her children, thro all generations
With deep respect
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Brunswick Maine
March 20 1852. |
Item Description and Credits
GLC01585 Harriet Beecher Stowe to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg
and Gotha
Brunswick, Maine, 20 March 1852.
Autograph letter signed, 2 pages.
Suggested Reading
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. The Annotated Uncle
Tom’s Cabin. Edited by Henry Louis Gates. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2006.
Meer, Sarah. Uncle Tom Mania: Slavery, Minstrelsy and Transatlantic
Culture in the 1850s. Athens: University of Georgia Press,
2005.
"Harriet Beecher Stowe's Life and Time." The Harriet Beecher Stowe
House. 2005. Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. 31 May 2007.
http://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/life/.
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