A TEACHER GOES TO WARWritten byDr. Pelham K. Mead III260 East Bradley ave., Space 3, El Cajon, Ca. 92021 619-449-8716 [email protected]

A Teacher Goes to WarBy Dr. Pelham K. Mead III1 ACT ONE- THE HOME OF HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, JUNE, 1851 12 SCENE 1-INT. DAY -TEA AND A READING AT THE STOWE HOME 2 The sign on the front of the house says Professor Calvin Ellis Stowe and Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. A group of Bowdoin students including Joshua L. Chamberlain have come to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s house every saturday night to hear a reading from her newspaper serial called, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Harriet Beecher Stowe is age 40, and the wife of Professor Calvin Ellis Stowe at Bowdoin College, Maine.HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (30)Come on in Joshua, and friends. Take a seat in the parlor and help yourself to some tea. I am going to read the first installment of my article to the National Era newspaper .JOSHUA L. CHAMBERLAIN (17)Thank you Mrs. Stowe. My classmates and I would love to join you in tea and story telling. Thomas, Albion, Jordan and Edward take a seat gentlemen. Tea anyone? Sugar?ALBION HENRY (17)This is a fine house you have here Mrs. Stowe.HARRIET BEECHER STOWEThank you Albion. We don’t own it, we rent the house.JOSHUA L. CHAMBERLAINIs Professor Stowe in today?HARRIET BEECHER STOWENo, Joshua he is at Bowdoin college grading papers in his office.JOSHUA L. CHAMBERLAINHe is always busy.

HARRIET BEECHER STOWEIs everyone comfortable? Well then let’s started. I called my series,”Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” As you all know it is a story about slavery in America. Let me begin and afterward we can talk about the characters and your impressions. “Late in the afternoon of a chilly day in February, two gentlemen were sitting alone over their wine, in a well-furnished dining parlor, in the town of Peoria, in Kentucky. There were no servants present, and the gentlemen with chairs closely approaching seemed to be discussing some subject with great earnestness. For convenience sake, we have said, hitherto, two gentlemen. One of the parties, however, when critically examine, did not seem, strictly speaking to come under the species. H was a short, thick-set man, with coarse commonplace features, and that swaggering air of pretension which marks a low man who is trying to elbow his way upward in the world. He was much over-dressed, in a gaudy vest of many colors, a blue neckerchief, bedropped gayly with yellow spots, and arrange with a flaunting tie, quite in keeping with the general air of the man. His hands, large and coarse, were plentifully bedecked with rings: and he wore a heavy gold watch chain, with a bundle of seals of portentous size, and a great variety of colors, attached to it, -which, in the ardor of conversation, he was in the habit of flourishing and jingling with evident satisfaction. His conversation was in free and easy defiance of Murray’s Grammar,* and was garnished at convenient intervals with various profane expressions, which not even the desire to be graphic in our account shall induce us to transcribe. His companion, Mr. Shelby, had the appearance of a gentleman; and the arrangements of the house, and the general air of the housekeeping, indicated easy, and even opulent circumstances. As we before stated, the two were in the midst of an earnest conversation. ‘That is the way I should arrange the matter,” said Mr. Shelby. “I can’t make trade that way-I positively can’t, Mr. Shelby,” said the other, holding up a glassof wine between his eye and the light. “(MORE)2.

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (CONT'D)Why, the fact is Haley, Tom is an uncommon fellow; he is certainly worth that sum anywhere,- steady, honest, capable, manages my whole farm like a clock.” You mean honest, as niggers go,” said Haley, helping himself to a glass of brandy. “No; I mean, really, Tom is a good, steady, sensible, pious fellow. He got religion at a camp-meeting, four years ago; and i believe he really did get it. I’ve trusted