The Agitators

Author Talk

The Agitators

Three Friends Who Fought For Abolition and Women's Rights

April 28, 2022

Dorothy Wickenden’s The Agitators presents the most explosive political debates of the 19^th century—about the civil rights of African Americans and women, about the enlistment of Black troops, and about opposing interpretations of the Constitution—through the eyes of the book’s incredible protagonists: the incomparable Harriet Tubman and her allies, Martha Coffin Wright and Frances W. Seward.

In partnership with our friends at The Mark Twain House and Museum, the Stowe Center is pleased to present Wickenden in conversation with Dr. Manisha Sinha about this riveting, relevant, and deeply researched book. Drawing on richly detailed letters, Wickenden traces the second American revolution these incredible women fought to bring about, the toll their efforts took on their families, and their lasting contributions to the country. Audience participation is welcome and encouraged.

Dorothy Wickenden is the author of Nothing Daunted and The Agitators and has been the executive editor of The New Yorker since January 1996. A former Nieman Fellow at Harvard, Wickenden was national affairs editor at Newsweek from 1993-1995, and before that was the longtime executive editor at The New Republic.

Moderator Manisha Sinha is the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut and a leading authority on the history of slavery and abolition and the Civil War and Reconstruction. She is the author of The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition and The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in Antebellum South Carolina. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships.

Copies of The Agitators can be purchased in advance. This is a free, virtual event. Donations are split between the presenting organizations and are greatly appreciated. Advance registration is required.

Location Virtual

Doors Open 7:00 PM

Program 7:00-8:00 PM

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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.