She married Calvin E. Stowe, a student of theology, and thereafter devoted herself to her home and her children. During the years just before the Civil War there was much discussion of the slavery question. Mrs. Stowe had traveled in the South and had seen how the negroes were kept in ignorance, and how cruelly they were sometimes treated. She was aroused by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law and by some of the things that happened as a result of it. She resolved to use her talent for writing to help the slaves. [Sidenote: =Writes "Uncle Tom's Cabin"=] In 1851 she began the story, _Uncle Tom's Cabin_. It was first published in serial form in an abolition paper in Washington. It was later published in book form. From the first, the sale of the book was enormous. It was translated into many languages and was very popular abroad as well as at home. Mrs. Stowe became famous. It is said that the book converted more than two million people to the cause of freedom for slaves. It helped to unite the North and to give it strength to stand firm in the great conflict. [Illustration: HARRIET BEECHER STOWE _From a photograph by Sarony, New York_] Mrs. Stowe continued writing in behalf of the slaves. She gave her son to the cause of freedom. He was wounded at Gettysburg and never regained his health. She aided in establishing schools for the negroes in the South, and worked among them earnestly until her death in 1896. FRANCES E. WILLARD, THE GREAT TEMPERANCE CRUSADER; CLARA BARTON, WHO FOUNDED THE RED CROSS SOCIETY IN AMERICA; AND JANE ADDAMS, THE FOUNDER OF HULL HOUSE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT IN CHICAGO [Sidenote: =Frances E. Willard, 1839=] [Sidenote: =Family moves to Wisconsin=] =222. Frances E. Willard.= In 1839, when Frances Elizabeth Willard was born, thousands were leaving the eastern states for the new West. Her father and mother were successful teachers in New York, but when Frances was two years old they decided to move with the westward current. After living five years at Oberlin, Ohio, the family went on to Janesville, Wisconsin, settling on a farm in the midst of picturesque hills and woods. There Frances and her brother and sister grew up healthy, happy children, playing together in the forest and fields. The parents were religious and were total abstainers, and the children never forgot their teachings. [Sidenote: =Stands at head of her class=] At fifteen years of age Frances went to school in Janesville, and at eighteen to a Milwaukee college for girls. The following year she entered the Northwestern Female College at Evanston, Illinois. At graduation she stood at the head of her class. [Sidenote: =Death breaks up the home=]