PAPER

You have a book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, that you need to familiarize yourself with in order to do the paper. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the book. She was born in “Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. She came from the Beecher family, a famous religious family, and is best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which depicts the harsh conditions for enslaved African Americans. Wikipedia Born: June 14, 1811, Litchfield, CT” It is both a county and a city. Years later, A Matthew Rice Dutton was born in the same small county. Perhaps his older brother know Harriet. https://www.duttongenealogy.com/getperson.php?personID=I1962&tree=tree1 The Dutton family had been in Litchfield since the American Revolution. What appears to be the case from my research is that they attended the same church which was pastored by Harriett’s father. What seems to be accurate was that Matt, along with many of his family, moved to Kansas to participate in the fight to keep slavery out of Kansas and fight on the side of the union. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleeding_Kansas Research shows that Matt took part in the underground railroad, helping African Americans escape bondage. https://jeffersonjayhawkers.com/tag/matthew-r-dutton/ http://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2097/24878/LD2668T41953O8.pdf;sequence=1 What you are to do for the paper is to write a historical fiction about Matthew Dutton. You may wish to ‘be him in the first person” or create a fictional character. The first part talk about the Beecher family and the abolition movement and the influence of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Talk about Dutton moving from his home in New York to participate in Bleeding Kansas. Talk about helping the African Americans escape slavery and fighting against those who wish to turn Kansas into a “slave state” While there is much out there that is pure history about the Dutton family, I have found little to tie the story together so tight that historical fiction cannot be used to tell an important truth. (there are few times I use the word truth) That truth is people act upon what they believe to be true. Here is a family who were mostly Yale graduates, one had been President of Yale, and others were ministers. Yet they left a rather secure life in the North East to fight for a cause. Yes Harriett Beecher Stowe wrote a very influential book but it was people acting upon the belief that slavery was so wrong that they would leave their home and move to Kansas to fight, using Beecher Bibles no less. Please tell a good story. Use pictures. As far as length, I would say that 4 to 6 pages will do. Tell me your sources. I have given you some and hope to give you more. I will have a separate question and source board for this. It is not due yet but many o you seem to want to know about the paper so here it is.