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Two Miami Hamilton faculty are among organizers of a conference, "Writing for Justice: The Origins and Legacy of Uncle Tom's Cabin," marking the 200th birthday of Harriet Beecher Stowe. The conference will be Sept. 30 - Oct. 2 at various locations throughout the Cincinnati area and is free and open to the public.
The conference will feature lectures, guided tours, storytellers, a book signing and the opening of new exhibits at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House.
The keynote speaker is David S. Reynolds, author of Mightier Than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America. He will speak at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30, in The Mercantile Library, 414 Walnut Street, Cincinnati.
Reynolds also will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts in Hamilton as the kick off event for Miami Hamilton's Michael J. Colligan History Project. The event is free and open to the public.
Locations of the weekend’s events include the Cincinnati Public Library (Main Branch), National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, The Mercantile Library, Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal and Harriet Beecher Stowe House.
Martha Good, a political science professor, and Whitney Womack Smith, associate professor of English, both at Miami University’s Hamilton campus, are on the planning committee for the event. Good also is president of Friends of Harriet Beecher Stowe House, the only Ohio Historical Society site dedicated to a woman.
According to Good, Uncle Tom’s Cabin put all abolitionist rhetoric, facts and statistics into a form accessible to everybody…. It led to a huge change in public opinion. It made it possible for Lincoln to be elected president.”
Cincinnati is where Stowe collected fodder for Uncle Tom’s Cabin after arriving at the Queen City in 1832 at the age of 21.
“And to think,” Good added, “that in a time when females did not vote, did not have legal rights or were even allowed to speak in public meetings, this woman, who became the most influential political leader of the 19th century, lived right here (in Cincinnati).”
Due to limited capacity in some sessions, please email StoweConference@gmail.com or call 1-800-847-6075 to register and for program details.
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