Harriet Beecher Stowe: We Regret Most What We Don’t Do

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was an American abolitionist and author most famous for her landmark novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1852. Uncle Tom’s Cabin featured an emotional portrayal of life for enslaved African Americans. Its widespread popularity — it sold an unprecedented 300,000 copies in its first year alone — augmented societal tensions between the American North and South. After the Civil War, Stowe spent the rest of her life campaigning for various causes until her health began to deteriorate in her later years, likely to Alzheimer’s disease.

“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.”

from Little Foxes (1865) via Wikiquote