A Special Stowe Prize Thank You

The Stowe Prize for literary activism is one of the ways we bring the past to the present at the Stowe Center. Harriet Beecher Stowe chose to write her story in the form of a sentimental novel to change hearts and minds about slavery—she was strategic, she was courageous, and she made a difference.

The Stowe Center has awarded nine literary prizes to nine remarkably strategic and courageous authors who have also made a difference, including this year’s winner Dr. Ruha Benjamin, author of Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (Princeton University Press, 2022).

Like Stowe, Dr. Benjamin writes to prompt action. Viral Justice is a revelation of hope— if social inequities rely on our individual complicity to maintain harmful systems then social justice requires individuals to participate.

Social justice requires individuals to participate. The message to take action is clear.

I wanted to thank all of those who supported the Stowe Prize in myriad ways. Thank you to those who nominated a book, served on the committee to choose the winner, planned the celebration, and contributed funds and time to the event. Thank you to those who joined us at Immanuel Congregational church to hear Dr. Benjamin and poets Versatile Poetiq and Kimolee Eryn (both participants in 224 Ecospace’s Artists of Color Accelerator program), and the many social justice groups who made the Justice Fair strum with energy. Thank you to Kamora Herrington whose interview with Dr. Benjamin was profound (ADD LINK TO VIDEO).

Thank YOU for participating in social justice. Thank you for taking action.

STOWE PRIZE 2024 NOMINATION PAGE
Stowe Prize 2023 Page

School Group Interest Form

School Group Interest Form 2024

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

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Adult Group Interest Form

Group Tour Interest Form 2022

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

Group Name:

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Are you interested in a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.