The constitutional rights of the women of the United States : an address before the International Council of Women, Washington, D.C., March 30, 1888
(The constitutional rights of the women of the United Stat...)
The constitutional rights of the women of the United States : an address before the International Council of Women, Washington, D.C., March 30, 1888 is a high quality paperback publication of a historical work on women's suffrage and is a popular title am
Isabella Beecher Hooker was an American women's rights activist. She organized the New England Woman's Suffrage Association, the Connecticut Woman's Suffrage Association, and authored the work "Mother's Letters to a Daughter on Woman's Suffrage. "
Background
Isabella Beecher Hooker was born on February 22, 1822 in Litchfield, Connecticut, United States. She was the daughter of Reverend Lyman Beecher by his second wife, Harriet (Porter) Beecher. When Isabella was four years old the family moved to Boston, where her father became pastor of the Hanover Church; and six years later, to Cincinnati, where he assumed charge of Lane Theological Seminary.
"Our family circle, " she says, "was ever in discussion on the vital problems of human existence, and the United States Constitution, fugitive slave laws, Henry Clay and Missouri Compromise, alternated with free-will, regeneration, heaven, hell, and 'The Destiny of Man. ' " After the death of her mother in 1835, Isabella went to Hartford, Connecticut, to live with her sister Mary, who had married a prominent lawyer of that city, Thomas C. Perkins.
Education
Hooker attended the school established by her sister, Catharine Beecher, and in the stimulating atmosphere of the Beecher home was early awakened to an interest in theological questions and public affairs.
Career
With his brother-in-law, Honorary Francis Gillette, Hooker bought a hundred acres of land just outside the city and established Nook Farm, where a community grew up which came to include Charles Dudley Warner, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Joseph R. Hawley, and Samuel M. Clemens. Hooker became prominent in Hartford legal circles, was recorder of the supreme court of Connecticut for many years, and, being sympathetic with his wife's views, cooperated with her in her public activities.
Her interest in the status of women began in her husband's office, where, as she knitted, he read Blackstone to her. The theory of domestic relations set forth by that writer, based on the assumption that by marriage husband and wife become one person in law, and that during marriage the legal existence of the woman is suspended, aroused her resentment. Because of uncertainty of mind as to what course should be pursued, and especially because of a long-standing prejudice against Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth C. Stanton, it was some time before she gave the woman's rights movement whole-hearted support.
An acquaintance formed with Anna Dickinson in 1861, however, and a later association with Paulina Wright Davis, finally removed all misgivings, and she became one of the most active and prominent advocates of woman's suffrage in the United States. She wrote two letters, purporting to be from a mother to her daughter, on the subject, which appeared in Putnam's Magazine, November and December 1868. The following year she called the first convention held in Connecticut for the discussion of women in government, and formed the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association.
In 1870 she presented a bill to the Connecticut legislature, making husband and wife equal in property rights, and continued to agitate this reform until a similar bill, drawn up by her husband, was passed in 1877. She was one of the speakers at the Second National Woman Suffrage Convention, held at Washington in 1870, and organized and directed the Convention of the succeeding year.
She wrote the Declaration and Pledge of Women of the United States, asserting their rights, which, signed by 80, 000 women, was presented to Congress. Partly to repudiate the charge that suffragists favored loose sex relations, she published in 1874, Womanhood: Its Sanctities and Fidelities, in which she treats of domestic relations and the education of children. With Susan B. Anthony she made a lecture tour through Connecticut in 1874.
She assisted in calling the first International Convention of Women, 1888, and delivered an address on "Constitutional Rights of Women of the United States. " Governor Thomas Waller of Connecticut appointed her to the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Exposition, held at Chicago in 1893, and she prepared the "Universal Litany, " used for Cities Day. She appeared frequently before legislative committees and gave series of afternoon talks in Boston, New York, and Washington.
Her death, occasioned by a cerebral hemorrhage, occurred at Hartford in her eighty-fifth year.
Achievements
Hooker was prominent in the movement to secure equal rights for women. She was a leader, lecturer and activist for women's suffrage who refused to succumb to society's standards of what a woman's role should be. She co-wrote Connecticut’s first property law for women, campaigned against slavery, and also wrote thoughtful, creative magazine pieces.
In 1994 she was inducted in Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.
(The constitutional rights of the women of the United Stat...)
book
Religion
With her husband Hooker was a convert to Spiritualism.
Connections
Hooker married John Hooker, a young law student, sixth in descent from Thomas Hooker, on August 5, 1841. Until 1851 they lived in Farmington, Connecticut, and then removed to Hartford. Hooker was the mother of four children.
