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Author Bibliography (in progress)

Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811-1896)

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Harriet-Beecher-Stowe.jpgHarriet Elisabeth Beecher was born on 14 June 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut,  and died on 1 July 1896 in Hartford, Connecticut. Catharine Beecher was her older sister. Best known for her writings in support of the abolition of American slavery, she also supported rights for married women. In her longer works, she compares the status of non-human animals to that of women. Stowe’s animal ethics are welfarist; she repeatedly criticizes killing for killing’s sake or for entertainment, as opposed to the killing habits of prey animals that are natural and therefore more morally justifiable than the hunting habits of some humans. In her non-fiction, and some of her fiction, she argues that in the US it is possible to take pleasure in a vegetarian diet, such food being plentiful and abundant. With her sister Catharine, she argues that meat is less healthy than vegetables. Meat is a stimulant; that is, it is not intoxicating to the same extent as alcohol, but it nonetheless belongs to the same category of products. There is also a practical argument in favoring vegetable over animal food; meat requires more time and effort than vegetables to be palatable.

In some texts she reflects on what it means to eat other beings, especially in regard to oppression. In The Pearl of Orr’s Island it is suggested that to eat an individual as food is to acknowledge that it has no worth, no individuality. Stowe’s writing shows a consistent concern with health, which she often thematizes through the trope of animality. Indeed, she tends to link animality with youth, health, and bodily vigor. Overall, Stowe repeatedly addresses the importance of treating animals with compassion and love, and the humanizing effect of love. A further argument in favor of compassionate treatment of other-than-human animals is the impossibility for them to communicate with humans. Stowe’s characters acknowledge that animals communicate among themselves. Stowe occasionally imagines the point of view of animals, and sometimes they are even protagonists. While she does not reject the hierarchical view of the mind as superior to the body and the human superior to the animal, she routinely questions the superiority of humans as a biological species. She repeatedly relativizes the position of humans in the hierarchy of creation, while other-than-human animals are at times recognized as individuals.
 
IMAGE: Harriet Beecher Stowe, circa 1870s-1880s.
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

PUBLICATIONS

Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp. 2 vols. The Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Vols. III & IV. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1896-1897.

Household Papers and Stories. The Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Vol. VIII. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1896-1897.
 
The Mayflower, and Miscellaneous Writings. 26th edition. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1888.

“Olympiana.” Lady's Book Vol. XVIII no. 6 (June 1839): 241-243.
 

Pink and White Tyranny. A Society Novel. Boston: Roberts Bros, 1871.

“Rights of Dumb Animals.” Hearth and Home (2 Jan. 1869): 24. Rpt. Our Dumb Animals Vol. 1 no. 2 (February 1869): 69.

Stories About Our Dogs. Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo & Co., 1882.

Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands. London: Routledge, 1854.

 

Catharine Esther Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The American Woman's Home, or, Principles of domestic science: being a guide to the formation and maintenance of economical, healthful, beautiful and Christian homes. New York: J. B. Ford & Co., 1869.

 

Last updated on August 8th, 2024

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