She found herself on the estate which was later
known as Colonel Shelby's in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Her companion said
later, in recalling their experience: "Harriet did not seem to notice
anything in particular that happened, but sat most of the time as
though abstracted in thought. When the negroes did funny things and
cut up capers, she did not seem to pay the slightest attention to
them. Afterwards, however, in reading Uncle Tom, I recognized scene
after scene of that visit portrayed with the utmost fidelity, and knew
at once where the material for that part of the story had been
gathered."
To show how completely her "style" was herself, there is a passage
from one of her early letters describing her experience at Niagara
which burns with her own fire. "Let me tell you," she says, "if I can,
what is unutterable.... I did not once think if it were high or low;
whether it roared or didn't roar.... My mind whirled off, it seemed to
me, in a new strange world.... That rainbow, breaking out, trembling,
fading, and again coming like a beautiful spirit walking the waters.
Oh, it is lovelier than it is great; it is like the Mind that made it;
great, but so veiled in beauty that we gaze without terror. I felt as
if I could have gone over with the waters; it would be so beautiful a
death; there would be no fear in it. I felt the rock tremble under me
with a sort of joy. I was so maddened I could have gone, too, if that
had gone.
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