The Birthday of Eternity

Isaac Hopper, died May 7, 1852

From 1841, Isaac Hopper served as treasurer and book agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Hopper Medallion

On March 25, 1841, the National Anti-Slavery Standard, the official publication of the American Anti-Slavery Society, ran an article headlined "A Rare Specimen of a Quaker!" The titular specimen was Quaker minister George Fox White; the article accused him of being "in the constant practice of denouncing abolitionists in the most offensive and opprobrious terms." 

Complaints were subsequently lodged with New York Monthly Meeting (Hicksite), that the article "excite[d] discord and disunity" amongst the Society of Friends, contrary to discipline. The article's author, Oliver Johnson, was not a Quaker, but the meeting determined that the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society should be held responsible for the contents of the publication.  Only three members of the Executive Committee fit both criteria of being Quaker and residing full-time in New York City: Isaac T. Hopper, his son-in-law James S. Gibbons, and Charles Marriott. 

James S. Gibbons with his wife,
Abigail Hopper Gibbons (in the dark dress),
and their children

After over a year of deliberation, the three men were disowned in 1842. Nonetheless, they continued to attend religious meetings, and 40 years later--after the abolition of slavery--New York Yearly Meeting acknowledged regret for disowning them. 

In 1845 Hopper became active in prison reform and devoted the rest of his life to the Prison Association of New York, which sought reform in prisons and the justice system. 

Hopper frequently visited the state capital of  Albany, New York, to represent the association and to address the legislature.  Judge Edmonds said of one of these occasions: “His eloquence was simple and direct, but most effective. If he was humorous, his audience were full of laughter; if solemn, a death-like stillness reigned; if pathetic, tears flowed all around him.”.

John Young

He often pled for the pardon of prisoners. Governor John Young of New York, once said to him: “Friend Hopper, I will pardon any convict whom you say you conscientiously believe I ought to pardon.”

Abigail Hopper Gibbons

His married daughter,  Abigail Hopper Gibbons, founded the Women's Prison Assocation,  also to work for prison reform. She founded an asylum for women prisoners who had been released, to help with their re-entry to society, which she named for her father as the “Isaac T. Hopper Home.”.

Isaac Hopper died in New York City on May 7, 1852; he was 80 years old.  

He spoke his final words to his friend Lydia Maria Child, (who later became his biographer): "Tell them I love them all."

 

Lydia Maria Child

 

Isaac T. Hopper: A True Life, by Lydia Maria Child