1854, Oct. 23.
Yesterday I was again reminded of the remark which Mrs. Stowe makes about the variety of occupations which an American woman pursues. She says it is this, added to the cares and anxieties which keep them so much behind the daughters of England in personal beauty. And today, I was amused at reading that one of her party objected to the introduction of wood floors in American housekeeping, because she could seem to see herself down on her knees, doing the waxing. Throughout Mrs. Stowe’s book there is an openness which I like, no pretense in affectation, religious cant but it is honest habit and not affectation.
While this was written many years before, Maria Mitchell and Harriet Beecher Stowe must certainly have been at least acquaintances as they shared things in common, including their roles with the Women’s Congress, the New England Women’s Club, and likely SOROSIS, a women’s organization of which Mitchell was a founding member. They also shared friends and acquaintances in common and Mitchell made sure that Uncle Tom’s Cabin quickly appeared on the shelf of the Nantucket Atheneum when it was first published.
JNLF
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