The Public Debates of Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany

Who is Harriet?

The Public Debates of Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany

Who Is Harriet Series

September 25, 2025

The Who Is Harriet series will explore Harriet Beecher Stowe, her contemporaries, and her work from fresh perspectives. This scholarly series of programs will highlight the latest research and diverse perspectives, developing the broader context within which Stowe lived and worked.

$20 for admission | $35 for admission plus a copy of the book
77 Forest St, Hartford | Zoom
6:00 – 7:15 PM, Presentation and audience Q&A
No requirement to read the book beforehand!
Riverbend Bookshop: Get a 10% discount our Stowe Prize books! Mention us at check-out or use STOWEFORCHANGE for online purchases.

This lecture will contextualize Harriet Beecher Stowe and the novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, within the debates between Martin Delany and Frederick Douglass. Both African American leaders publicly disagreed on the role of Stowe as an ally, Stowe’s literary depiction of enslaved African Americans, and Stowe as a credible spokesperson for slavery. Delany and Douglass each published open letters to one another expressing their views not only on the novel, but on what they each saw as distinct strategies regarding the fate of African Americans in antebellum America.

Dr. Tracey Hucks is professor of theology at Harvard University. Dr. Hucks has written extensively about the Afro-Caribbean roots of spiritualism. Her book, Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad, vol. 1, explores the nuanced differences among Caribbean religious practices and how those practices have changed over time. The chapter “Obeah, Piety, and Poison in The Slave Son,” specifically looks at Black diasporic religious practices in the books Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and The Slave Son, by Marcella Wilkins.

PRESENTING SPONSOR
Laura & Barry Korobkin

SUPPORTING SPONSOR
Francine & Stephan Christiansen

FRIEND SPONSORS
Mary Ellen & Bob White
Diane Pflugrad Foley

November 5 with Dr. Claudia Stokes: Stowe’s Feminist Theology

Location Hybrid

Doors Open 5:45 PM

Program 6:00 - 7:15 PM

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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What date would you like to visit? (The Stowe Center typically books group tours for Thursday through Sunday visits.)

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Please indicate the number of adults, seniors, and children expected in your group:

Are there special accommodations that can help us serve you best?

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.