Go Harriet

We caught the first part of the excellent series “The Abolitionists”, an “American Experience” program on PBS. It’s very well done and I heartily recommend that all watch it. Above is my quick sketch of Harriet Beecher Stowe, one of the abolitionists featured in the program. She was part of a large, deeply religious and activist family (all fascinating in their own right to read about), and she was touched by the brutality of slavery as a young child. As a woman, she wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which stirred the conscience of many Americans on the horrors of the institution, bolstering the abolitionist cause.

Prior to writing the first installment, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote “I feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak....I hope every woman who can write will not be silent.”

And that’s what struck me the most, how could so many people then stay silent on slavery? At a time when our country was largely Christian—whether through personal conviction or just culturally Christian—it’s shocking to imagine that so many either stayed silent, or worse, worked to defend and perpetuate the crime of slavery. As a believer in Christ, it’s hard for me to fathom that it was such a small group that were part of the abolitionist movement at first.

In these gray winter days, this show has given me much to think about. The bravery and fortitude of the slaves, free blacks and whites who banded together to right a horrible wrong is humbling... and an inspiration.