In Brunswick, Maine, adjacent to Bowdoin College, stands the house where Uncle Tom's Cabin was written. The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is a National Historic Landmark on Federal Street in Brunswick. It served as the temporary residence for Harriet Beecher Stowe and her husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe. Built in 1806–1807 in the Federal style, the building was originally known as the Titcomb House. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his brother Stephen temporarily rented rooms here while studying at Bowdoin College before moving into what is now Main Hall by the autumn of 1823.
When Calvin Ellis Stowe became a professor at Bowdoin College in 1850, he rented this home for his family. His wife, Harriet, was sent ahead to prepare the dwelling while he finished his fall semester at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. Mrs. Stowe, who was six months pregnant at the time, embarked on the journey in April 1850 with their three older children and her aunt, Esther. The family arrived in Brunswick on Wednesday, May 22nd, amidst a storm. The house had been partially prepared for them by Phoebe Upham, the wife of Professor Thomas Cogswell Upham. Missing her husband, Mrs. Stowe wrote to him in November: "I am lonely at nights in this old house, where every gust of wind makes as many sounds as there are ghosts in Hades — squeaking, cracking, groaning."
The rent for the house, then owned by the Titcomb family, was $125—higher than expected—and Mrs. Stowe corresponded to cover these expenses. It was within these walls that Harriet Beecher Stowe penned Uncle Tom's Cabin. The idea first came to her in a vision while she sat in Pew No. 23 at the neighboring First Parish Church; she saw the character Uncle Tom, wounded after a beating administered by his master. She read early drafts of the chapters to her friends, including the future college president Joshua Chamberlain and his future wife, Fanny Adams. While living here, the Stowes supported the Underground Railroad. John Andrew Jackson, an enslaved man who stayed with the Stowes, recounted hiding there until he reached Canada in his narrative, The Experience of a Slave in South Carolina. Although the Stowes lived in the house for only two years, Mrs. Stowe later recalled them as the healthiest and happiest of her life.
At one point, the house was converted into a restaurant and hotel featuring a gift shop on the first floor and individual rooms on the second. In 1962, the house received National Historic Landmark status, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. In 2016, it was recognized as part of the "Underground Railroad — Path to Freedom" National Network. Bowdoin College purchased the property in 2001 for $1.3 million. Today, it remains under the ownership of Bowdoin College, which opened a public space called "Harriet’s Writing Room" in May 2016. Much of the exterior has been preserved from the era when the Stowes resided there.
I reread Uncle Tom's Cabin this winter while preparing for my exam on Realism. At that moment, I could not have imagined that I would meet the characters of the novel in real life. This happened while I was traveling by bus from New York to Buffalo. Most of the passengers were African Americans heading toward Canada. When the bus broke down and the driver announced that nothing could be done, they sank into despair. One man, about fifty years old, tried to find a way out: he checked the engine, made all the necessary calls, and comforted women grieving that they would not see their children in Canada. I saw in him the embodiment of a modern-day Uncle Tom—a person helping everyone regardless of skin color or nationality. We crossed paths again at the bus station in Buffalo. He helped several people buy new tickets, as many passengers, myself included, had missed their connecting flights due to the delay. The book caused a public outcry and led to the Civil War in the United States. The work became popular not only in America but worldwide, as it raises numerous themes, the foremost being personal freedom. David Polyakov (Special Correspondent for API TV from Brunswick, Maine, USA) MORE: Baseball in the USA and Cleveland: National Religion, Economic Engine, and Cultural Code Cleveland Marks the 70th Anniversary of the Council for International Programs (CIP) A Bridge Across Space: How a Bronze Gagarin Spoke to Cleveland Древние люди из Сунгиря. Экспедиция Андрея Полякова «По Пути Афанасия Никитина» #ДавидПоляков #USA #Clevelend #CIP #наука #Экспедиция #АндрейПоляков #APITV #ЭкспедицияАндреяПолякова #Путешествия #Туризм #Авто | |
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