FAQ

The Stowe Center for Literary Activism is a nonprofit museum, program, research, and community center in Hartford, CT. The Stowe Center is comprised of three historical buildings on 2.5 acres of historic and contemporary gardens.

We offer history, not house tours, focusing on the time period in which Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin–the nineteenth century. Our tours are immersive, taking place in Stowe’s home.

Early American writers used literary activism–or a careful use of words and symbols to change hearts and minds–to influence others. Stowe’s work was instrumental in both galvanizing anti-slavery among white audiences in the U.S. and abroad and amplifying the works of enslaved and formerly enslaved people with her Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe wrote the Key a year after Uncle Tom’s Cabin‘s publication to prove the validity of the story it told.

Our mission: The Stowe Center encourages social justice and literary activism by exploring the legacy of Harriet Beecher Stowe and all who advocate hope and freedom then and now.

Stowe’s 1871 home is a National Historic Landmark. The Stowe Center is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is an Affiliate of the American Writers Museum.

Click here and scroll to bottom for driving directions, maps, and public transportation

As you drive down Forest Street (one-way from Farmington Ave.), turn right in the free parking lot just past the Stowe House. Free on-street parking is also available in designated areas.

Our mission: The Stowe Center encourages social justice and literary activism by exploring the legacy of Harriet Beecher Stowe and all who advocate hope and freedom then and now.

The Stowe Center uses Stowe’s life and work to inspire positive social change. Interactive tours and programs connect visitors to 19th century issues and the contemporary face of race, class and gender issues. The United States has a long and strong history of authors using words to make positive change. We believe literary activism, civic engagement, open-minded conversation, and respectful dialog is key to positive change.

Salons at Stowe are 21st-century parlor conversations designed to inspire you to move from dialogue and debate to action on social justice issues you care about. Discussion topics focus on the contemporary face of social issues Stowe advocated. See the Calendar of Events for upcoming Salons at Stowe and more conversations at Stowe.

When you visit the Stowe Center, don’t expect a traditional historic house museum! Expect a conversational, interactive tour where you can participate along with your guide.

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Hours and Admission

Yes, folks are welcome and encouraged to reserve your spot – only 12 people per tour! E-xplore our calendar to book your tour.

Groups of ten or more adults must schedule a group tour three weeks in advance: call 860-522-9258 ext 315 or email Info@StoweCenter.org.

Discovering Stowe is a condensed 30 minute tour. Inspiring Stowe in a 60 minute tour.

Tours start in the Stowe Visitor Center.

Stowe was a 19th century author and activist who is most famous for writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), an exposé of slavery and powerful appeal to eliminate it. This wildly popular and influential novel galvanized the anti-slavery movement in the years before the Civil War.

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Stowe lived in Hartford from 1863 until her death in 1896. In the Nook Farm neighborhood of Hartford, Stowe built her dream house, Oakholm. The high maintenance cost caused her to sell Oakholm in 1870. She then moved into the Forest Street residence with her husband and twin daughters in 1873 where she lived until her death in 1896.

Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1851 and 1852. The novel was first published serially –- that is, a chapter a week –- in The National Era, a national abolitionist newspaper out of Washington D.C. It was published as a book in hardcover and paperback in 1852.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born and spent her early years in Connecticut, the last of the New England states to abolish slavery in 1848. Her mother’s family enslaved people and Stowe had direct interactions with enslaved people and indentured workers.

As a child, Stowe stayed with her mother’s family who at the time enslaved two people, a woman named Dinah and a young boy named Henry. Stowe remembered them fondly but also remembered feeling proud to be of a higher social class and station than them, which her grandmother made sure she and they understood.

In her own home growing up, Rachel and Drusilla (Zillah) Crooke were bound by indenture to her father, Lyman.

There is very little evidence that Stowe was active with the Underground Railroad, though she knew others who were.

Once while Stowe was living in Cincinnati, Ohio, Stowe, her husband, Calvin, and her brother, Henry, assisted an enslaved man escape by giving him provisions and connecting him with people who were part of the Underground Railroad. Another time, while in Brunswick, Maine, Stowe assisted John Andrew Jackson, another enslaved person seeking freedom, by providing shelter overnight as he made his way North to Canada.

Outside of these two incidents in which Stowe served as a conduit to the Underground Railroad, we do not see that she was an active part of this important network of freedom seekers and their allies.

Slavery is a system in which people own other people. In the United States, it was legal to enslave people taken from Africa and their descendants and to buy and sell them as property. They and their children were enslaved for life. Slavery’s free labor was an important economic force.

Slavery is different from indentured servants. Indentured servants were legally human and they agreed to their servitude by signing a contract with a time limit. Indentured servants did not pass on their indentured status to their children or descendants. While many poor European migrants came to the colonies as indentured servants, including people from Ireland and the United Kingdom, only people from Africa, African Americans and Native Americans were enslaved.

Slavery is also different from modern-day human trafficking. Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for sexual exploitation or forced labor. Unlike 19th century slavery in the U.S., human trafficking is not legal and is conducted in secret using underground networks.

Yes. Slavery was not abolished in Connecticut until 1848, making it the last New England state to abolish slavery.

Slavery began in Connecticut as early as 1639. On the eve of the American Revolution, Connecticut had the highest number of enslaved people in New England. Slowly and gradually, abolition opinion grew in Connecticut, and in 1848 the state abolished slavery.

The central issue that caused the U.S. Civil War was slavery. Though other factors contributed, it was slavery and the debate over its future that fueled southern succession and the war.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one of the most popular and influential novels of the 19th century. Many readers were inspired to take action against slavery, but some accused Stowe of exaggeration and she received threats. Responding to her critics, Stowe wrote a A Key To Uncle Tom’s Cabin presenting facts and real life stories on which her novel was based.

Yes, the phrase “Uncle Tom” is a racial slur. Uncle Tom is the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. He is a religious and pious man. At the time of publication, many saw Uncle Tom as a noble and strong protagonist, while others rejected him for being weak and for forgiving Simon Legree, who beat him to death.

Stage adaptations of the story altered Tom’s character dramatically when they used minstrel theater elements, where white actors in blackface represent stereotyped African Americans. Uncle Tom became a term used to insult someone for being subservient and passive.

Yes. They were both residents of the Nook Farm neighborhood, a Hartford community of wealthy social activists in the mid to late 19th century.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, best known as Mark Twain, had many connections to the Beechers. Stowe’s brother Henry, a well known and well-connected Brooklyn minister, helped him negotiate terms for his book Innocents Abroad, and introduced him to the family of the woman who became his wife. Stowe’s brother, Thomas Beecher, performed the marriage ceremony for Clemens and Olivia Langdon as Olivia’s family’s minister. When the young Clemens couple moved to Hartford, they settled in Nook Farm, first renting Stowe’s brother-in-law and sister John and Isabella Beecher Hooker’s house and then building their own. They moved into their new home in 1874.

Yes! Member and Donor generosity means the Stowe Center can provide exemplary programs and accomplish the mission. Be part of preserving Harriet Beecher Stowe’s history and inspiring commitment to social justice and positive change. Your gift helps strengthen the local and global community. Learn more about how to donate and how to become a member.

Explore nearby dining options:

The Nook Cafe at The Mark Twain House and Museum

Tangiers Market

Monte Albán

Wood-n-Tap

Fire and Spice Vegan Restaurant

Fire by Forge

A.C. Petersen Farms

West Hartford Center

More dining options.

Hartford is a vibrant and culturally rich city. Find suggestions for other great things to do in the area and stay for a day trip!