"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you until it seems that you cannot hold on for a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe
As part of the U.S. Abolitionist Movement to free the slaves, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1812-1896) wrote the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852.
"Let us resolve: First to attain the grace of silence; Second to deem all fault-finding that does no good a sin... Third to practice the grace and virtue of praise," wrote Stowe who was a teacher and mother of nine.
Born in Litchfield, Connecticut, Stowe was inspired by the passionate sermons of her father, an evangelical Calvinist minister. Uncle Tom's Cabin sold more than 10,000 copies in its first week.
"Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done," she said.
Her famous novel told the tale of Simon Legree, a cruel slaveholder who whipped his slave Tom to death. Uncle Tom's Cabin became a best-seller and convinced many that slavery should end. As part of the Underground Railroad, she helped slaves escape to freedom in the North.
"The truth," Stowe said, "is the kindest thing we can give folks in the end."
When President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe during the Civil War, he joked, "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that made this big war."
Hang in there.