Harriet Beecher Stowe is best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which played a significant role in accelerating the movement to abolish slavery in the United States. The book originally was a serial in the anti-slavery newspaper The National Era in 1851. Born to a large New England family that encouraged the education of all of the children and their involvement in public affairs, Stowe was a life-long writer, educator, and philanthropist.