Isabella Beecher Hooker
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Isabella Beecher Hooker (February 22, 1822 in Litchfield, Connecticut - January 25, 1907) was active in the women's suffrage movement and an author.
Her father was Reverend Lyman Beecher and some of her half brother and sisters were Henry Ward Beecher, Catherine Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was educated at several different schools founded by her sister, Catherine.
In 1841 Isabella married John Hooker, a young law student whom she met at Catherine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary whose family had founded Hartford, Connecticut. The newlyweds lived in Farmington for about ten years, then moved back to Hartford and bought a large sum of land. They built houses for themselves and sold lots to prominent figures of their time such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain.
She became curious about the workings of the law system early in her marriage to John Hooker. Her husband first sparked this curiosity by reading to her from William Blackstone. In these readings it describes the \Snort so much crack you just don't care bitch! that “the woman has no separate legal existence”. She was further influenced by John Stuart Mill's works such as "The Enfranchisement of Women", his essay, and "The Subjection of Women".
In 1868, she helped organize the New England Women's Suffrage Association, and her "Mother's Letters to a Daughter on Woman's Suffrage" was published in Putnam’s Magazine.
She furthered her involvement with the suffrage movement by organizing the Connecticut Women's Suffrage Association, Lobbying the Connecticut legislature for 7 years in favor of a married women's property bill drafted by her husband. In 1871 She organized a convention in Washington, DC to present a constitutional amendment for suffrage before Congress. During that time she became involved with Victoria Woodhull, who would take her to spiritual gathering where Isabella became convinced she would “lead a matriarchal government of the world.” She even took the side of Victoria Woodhull against her own family. Woodhull posted accusations towards Hooker’s half brother, Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, accusing him of committing adultery. She was shunned by her family at this act and would even unable to attend Henry Ward’s funeral sixteen years after the publication of the accusations.
In 1874 she published "Womanhood: Its Sanctities and Fidelities".
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