Background
Abigail Hopper Gibbons, the third child of Isaac Tatem Hopper and Sarah Tatum, was born on December 7, 1801, in Philadelphia.
Abigail Hopper Gibbons, the third child of Isaac Tatem Hopper and Sarah Tatum, was born on December 7, 1801, in Philadelphia.
Gibbons was carefully educated at home and in the Quaker day-schools of the period.
When about twenty years old, Gibbons set up a school of her own in Philadelphia for the elementary education of the children of Friends, in which she continued to teach for ten years.
In 1830, she moved to New York and became the head of a Friends’ School in that city.
Both Isaac Hopper and James Sloan Gibbons were disowned as members of the Society of Friends in 1842 by the New York Monthly Meeting, of the Hicksite branch, on account of their antislavery activities, whereupon Mrs. Gibbons went to the same meeting in June of that year and publicly read her resignation of membership, and resignations in behalf of four of her minor children, giving her reasons for withdrawal from the religious Society in which she had been born.
Until her death, however, she remained loyal to the ideals and the way of life of the Quakers. Becoming interested in some homeless German children in her neighborhood, she set about the establishment of an industrial school which she conducted for twelve years.
She worked for a large part of her life to improve the conditions of the poor, the crippled, and the blind children in the city poor-house at West Farms, now Randalls Island, and as a major interest took up the work of prison reform, in which her father had been a prime mover.
She made weekly visits to the Tombs and became the wise helper and counselor of the noted matron of that period, Flora Foster. She brought to this work tender sympathy balanced by sound judgment, and rare talent for administration and management.
When the Civil War began, she offered herself as nurse and helper in the camps and hospitals, and served with few intermissions from 1861 to 1865.
During the anti-draft riots, her home in New York was one of those picked out by the mob for destruction. The house was completely sacked and many papers and articles of great value were destroyed.
As soon as the war was over, she helped to start a “Labor and Aid Society” to assist the returning soldiers to find employment and new opportunity. She assisted in establishing the Protestant Asylum for Infants, and was president of the New York Committee for the Prevention of State Regulation of Vice.
Over the course of her life, Gibbons pushed for prison reform, welfare, civil rights, and care for soldiers returning from the Civil War. She and her father founded the Women's Prison Association of New York City in 1845. Eventually, a political shift in the Quaker organization resulted in Gibbons' father, as well as her husband, James S. Gibbons, being disowned by the society for their anti-slavery activities. Her most important humanitarian work, however, was done through the Women’s Prison Association, of which she was for many years the efficient president. A “Home” was established by the Association in which discharged prisoners could live while they were finding their way back to normal life again. It was through her efforts also, that provision was made for arrested women to be searched by persons of their own sex. With much right can she be called “the Elizabeth Fry of America. ”
Abigail was devoted Abolitionists and they made their home a refuge for escaping slaves. She also identified herself completely with all the lines of humanitarian work which were carried on by Mrs. Gibbons’s father.
Abigail was married in the Friends’ Meeting House, New York City, February 14, 1833, to James Sloan Gibbons of Philadelphia, a native of Wilmington, Delaware. After their marriage they lived in Philadelphia until 1835 when they moved to New York City, which became their permanent residence.
3 December 1771 - 7 May 1852
11 May 1776 - 18 June 1822
March 1813 - 23 December 1854
1815 - July 1864
1817 - 15 December 1908
21 June 1837 - 28 December 1889
19 September 1835 - 9 August 1918
30 October 1839 - 13 July 1936
9 September 1841 - 29 March 1847
17 November 1843 - 9 December 1844
16 January 1834 - 17 December 1855
1 July 1810 - 17 October 1892
