Harriet Beecher Stowe's father and all seven of her brothers were ministers
On June 14, 1811, Harriet Elisabeth Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut. Five years later, Roxana Foote Beecher, her mother, passed away. Her father, Presbyterian clergyman Lyman Beecher, had 13 children in total over three marriages, 11 of whom lived to adulthood. His seven surviving sons all went on to become ministers. Henry Ward Beecher continued his father's abolitionist work, and according to lore, he delivered weapons in containers labeled "Bibles" to anti-slavery pioneers in Kansas and Nebraska. The women of the Beecher family were likewise inspired to occupy powerful positions and fight for justice. Eldest child Catharine Beecher co-founded the Hartford Female Seminary, while youngest daughter Isabella Beecher Hooker was a prominent suffragist.
The Lane Debates on Slavery also had an impact on Harriet. The series of arguments between supporters of colonization and abolition held over the course of 18 days in February 1834, won handily by Theodore Weld and other abolitionists, was the largest event to ever occur at Lane. Most of the arguments were attended by Elisabeth. Any further discussion of the subject was forbidden by her father and the trustees because they feared greater violence from anti-abolitionist whites. The upshot was a major flight of the Lane students, who transferred to the new Oberlin Collegiate Institute coupled with a sympathetic trustee and a professor when its trustees decided, by a contentious vote, to welcome students regardless of "race" and to permit debates of any issue.
