Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author (Uncle Tom's Cabin),
Harriet Stowe live like 17 years in Florida... She wrote a book with a Florida theme...
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https://www.mandarinmuseum.net/wp-c...Replicating-Stowes-Experiences-In-Florida.pdf
While Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in Florida for part of seventeen years, it would be wrong to assume she lived like modern snowbirds or even as modern Floridians.
Do not know if I can make the picture bigger...
A photograph attributed to C. Seaver, Jr., c. 1873 shows the home in Mandarin, Florida, of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96), author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Here she sits with her husband and daughters. Steamers carried crowds of visitors to this house, situated within shouting distance of the landing pier. In 1873, Mrs. Stowe published Palmetto Leaves, a book of letters to women friends about her life in north Florida.
SNIP... This article list a who's who of the late 19th century that visited "Sliver Springs", like MS. Lincoln, the The Grant's. Ms. Stowe and ect...
LINK:
https://www.ocala.com/article/LK/20100425/News/604236945/OS
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the famous author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” was tempted to take the trip while on a visit to Palatka, but could not overcome her fears when she saw the condition of one of the steamboats, the Ocklawaha, at the dock.
The long, low sides of the boat had been scarred by trees and bushes along the banks. There was no glass in the windows, only wooden shutters, which led to speculation about the discomfort caused by mosquitoes and extreme heat. It took awhile for Stowe to make up her mind.
Sometime later, after reading what others had to say about it, she finally made the trip. Writing about her adventure, she said there was nothing in the world comparable to it.
Ship,,, She promote the state... the below link tales how Stowe promoted Florida to Northern Progressive...
LINK:
https://myfloridahistory.org/frontiers/article/70
Stowe began spending her winters in Mandarin, Florida, shortly after the Civil War ended. Her home was on the St. Johns River where she could sit on her porch and enjoy the natural environment. Stowe also traveled to places such as Silver Springs, St. Augustine, and Tallahassee, and wrote about her experiences.
In 1873, some of Stowe’s descriptive and colorful “tourist articles” were published in the book “Palmetto Leaves.” More recently, a collection of Stowe’s fascinating vignettes of Florida life not included in “Palmetto Leaves” has been published as the book “Calling Yankees to Florida: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Forgotten Tourist Articles.”
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Stowe became actively involved in Florida’s new tourism industry of the late 1800s. The steamship companies that brought tourists down the river paid the famous writer to stand on her porch and wave to their passengers.
Stowe’s book “Palmetto Leaves” consists of a series of articles written in the year 1872. She wrote many articles both before and after that year, and a selection of those articles has been assembled in the book “Calling Yankees to Florida,” edited by John T. Foster Jr. and Sarah Whitmer Foster.
The Foster’s believe that Stowe had a hidden agenda in writing about the natural wonders of Florida for northerners suffering through snowy winters. In addition to stimulating tourism, the Foster’s think that Stowe was trying to attract a more progressive voting block to Florida to lead the state from the Old South into a new era.