Harriet Beecher Stowe vs. Thomas Carlyle
Side-by-side comparison of two thinkers
Harriet Beecher Stowe
1811 – 1896
Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and wrote the popular novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), which depicts the harsh conditions experienced by enslaved African Americans. The book reached an audience of millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and in Great Britain, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South.
"A man builds a house in England with the expectation of living in it and leaving it to his children; while we shed our houses in America as easily as a snail do…"
Thomas Carlyle
1795 – 1881
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. Known as the "sage of Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the Victorian era.
"Why not? What is to hinder this Samson from governing? There is in him what far transcends all apprenticeships; in the man himself there exists a model of gover…"
Connections
Both wrote about: