The next event on the calendar at the Lawrence County Museum will be on May 23 at 1 p.m. with the Appraisal Fair. Come bring your antiques and collections to be appraised.

To carry on with the story of John Rankin, we must continue with the work of author Harriet B. Stowe.

As we said last week John Rankin was a nationally known abolitionist and was known as a “conductor” on the underground railroad. This inspired Mrs. Stowe to write “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” She was also an American author and abolitionist in the year before the Civil War.

Stowe was born June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Conn. Her father was a Congregational minister who placed emphasis on education and dedicated his life to religion and helping others.

In 1832 the Beecher family moved to Cincinnati. Here Harriet met Calvin Stowe who was a professor at the Lane Theological Seminary. The two fell in love and later married. In 1850 they moved to Brunswick, Maine, where Professor Stowe accepted a position at Bowdoin College.

While in Maine, Harriet wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 inspired her to write this novel. She objected to the federal government assisting slave owners in their efforts to reclaim their runaway slaves in the Northern states.

Because “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was fiction, Harriet was criticized for her inaccurate portrayal of slavery. An abolitionist newspaper, “The National Era,” originally published the book and it became a bestseller.

Stowe met President Lincoln while she was visiting in Washington, D.C.

Lincoln reportedly said, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started the Great War.”

She continued to write when the Stowes moved to Connecticut and published 30 books before her death in 1893.

She was inspired to write from the example of John Rankin.

Next week we plan to write about the Military Room at the museum which is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.

Historical Fact: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President, called the Word “the best gift God has even given to man … But for it we could not know right from wrong.”