Harriet Beecher Stowe's life mirrored that of many other white, middle-class women of her generation. But her highly productive writing career set her apart in a number of ways. While other nineteenth-century American women authors like Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Fanny Fern (Sara Parton) and Frances Harper also had notable success, Stowe was unusual in the range of genres she helped shape and in her ability to call upon diverse resources to support her work. Many of her professional opportunities derived from her family connections, which mitigated gender-based constraints faced by other women of her day.

Beecher lore and community vision

Stowe's Beecher family lineage had a significant impact on the way her contemporaries perceived her. During her lifetime, family members and friends worked hard to create an image that would appeal to her reading audience. During her declining years, her son Charles Stowe wrote the first authorized biography, where he cast Uncle Tom's Cabin as “a work of religion” guided by the same republican principles that had motivated the Declaration of Independence and “made Jefferson, Hamilton, Washington, and Patrick Henry anti-slavery men.” Around the same time, Florine Thayer McCray, a Hartford neighbor, prepared another biography. McCray built her book to a rousing conclusion celebrating “the noble legacy” of Stowe's writings and “the priceless heritage of her personal example.” Close friend Annie Fields published Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1897, just after Stowe's death, reinforcing the message that the author's career had been unselfishly dedicated to the anti-slavery cause.