Harriet was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the seventh child of a famous protestant preacher. Harriet's mother died when she was five years old. Her father remarried a year later. When Harriet was twelve, she went to Hartford, where her sister Catherine had opened a school. Sometimes she was a little absent minded, but she was an excellent writer.

In 1832 Harriet moved with her parents to Cincinnati, Ohio. She met and married Professor Calvin E. Stowe. Over time they had seven children. Harriet helped support her family by writing religious articles, poems, biographies, children's books, and fiction books for adults. Her first and most famous book was Uncle Tom's Cabin. That book made people think about how bad slavery was for the black people in our country. Harriet met many famous people in her lifetime. During the Civil War she even had a chance to meet President Abraham Lincoln who greeted her with the words, "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!"

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