Julia Ward Howe

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Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819–October 17, 1910) was a prominent writer, poet, lecturer, and women's rights activist.

An American abolitionist, she was most famous as the author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, which she wrote in 1862. After the Civil War her work for the freedom of slaves evolved into work to gain civil rights for women and and she played a significant role in the early organizing of women as peace activists.

In 1868, she helped establish the New England Suffrage Association. During a speaking tour in the late 1870's, J.W. Howe called for a peace movement and convened a Woman's Peace Conference in London, as a response to the Franco-Prussian War.

Howe was a woman of great religious conviction whose belief in "deed, and not creed" was the motivating factor behind all of her great achievements. She spoke on "What is Religion" as a featured speaker at the Parliament of World's Religions held in 1893 at the Chicago World's Fair.


Family

Born Julia Ward in New York City, she was the fourth of seven children born to Samuel Ward (1786 - 1839) and Julia Rush Cutler. Her father was a well-to-do banker.

Her paternal grandparents were Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Ward (May 1, 1756 - November 27, 1839) of the Continental Army and Phoebe Green. Her maternal grandparents were Benjamin Clarke and Sarah Mitchell Cutler.

Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Ward was a son of Samuel Ward, a colonial Governor of Rhode Island and later as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and his wife Anna Ray. Phoebe Green was a daughter of William Greene, Governor of Rhode Island and his wife Catharine Ray.

Marriage and public life

In 1843 she married a hero Abolitionist, physician Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe who founded the Perkins Institute for the Blind. He was very active in the lead anti-slavery cause.

Dr. Howe, along with their minister Theodore Parker, were a part of the Secret Six, six men who agreed to bankroll John Brown and his valiant efforts to end slavery.

The couple made their home in South Boston, had six children (five of whom lived to adulthood), and were active in the Free Soil Party.

Together Dr. Howe and Julia worked tirelessly with an institution of the U.S. Sanitary Commission. They worked side by side as volunteers, during the early end of the Civil War, as more men died due to extremely poor sanitary conditions than from any disease or injuries, than actually died in battle.

President Lincoln noticed their selfless efforts of compassion, and in 1862 he invited Dr. Sam and J.W. Howe to Washington.

There is an intriguing story behind J.W.Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic",Pastor James Freeman Clarke, asked to write a song to replace the song written in admiration of John Brown, " J.B's Body". She said she awoke the very next morning early dawn, to her astonishment, found the words to the song arranging themselves in her head, she stayed in bed, awaiting the very last verse to be completed within her thoughts, then arose quickly and said to herself, " I shall lose this if I don't write it down, searched for pen and paper, began scrawling lines almost without looking. Upon completion, I lay down again and fell asleep, but not before feeling as if something very important had just happened to me." Published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862 it quickly became one of the most popular songs for the Union during the American Civil War. Ironically, the original tune was written by a Southerner for the purpose of religious rivals.

Due to her deep religious conviction J.W.Howe hoped through the song, to turn the idea of the war, or the focus could remain on the principle of ending slavery itself. Unbeknownst to most, she was paid $5 for the song, Battle Hymn of the Republic.

After the war she focused her activities on the causes of widows and orphans of soldiers, on both sides she truly lived for the sake of others, a woman ahead of her time.

In 1868, J.W.Howe began her crusade to encourage the reconciliation of Union and Confederate neighbors.

In 1870, She wanted women to cross national lines, to work together to end war for all time. She pointed out that what we have in common as women and human beings far outweighs that which divides us. With her heart full of zeal, she worked hard to push Congress to action, together with Anna Jarvis, they fought for a formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace. She was the first to proclaim Mother's Day, with her Mother's Day Proclamation.

On January 28, 1908 Julia Ward Howe became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Julia Ward Howe is buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Julia Ward Howe was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1970.

Quotes

Mother Mind

I never made a poem, dear friend.. I never sat me down, and said, This cunning brain and patient hand Shall fashion something to be read.

Men often came to me, and prayed I should indite a fitting verse For fast, or festival, or in Some stately pageant to rehearse. (As if, than Balaam more endowed, I of myself could bless or curse.)

Reluctantly I bade them go, Ungladdened by my poet-mite; My heart is not so churlish but Its loves to minister delight.

But not a word I breathe is mine To sing, in praise of man or God; My Master calls, at noon or night, I know his whisper and his nod.

Yet all my thoughts to rhythms run, To rhyme, my wisdom and my wit? True, I consume my life in verse, But wouldst thou know how that is writ?

T'is thus..through weary length of days, I bear a thought within my breast That greaten from my growth of soul, And waits, and will not be expressed.

It greatens, till its hour has come, Not without pain, it sees the light; "Twixt smiles & tears I view it o'er, And dare not deem it perfect, quite.

These children of my soul I keep Where scarce a mortal man may see, Yet not unconsecrate, dear friend, Baptismal rites they claim of thee.


Great Quotes:

"Every life has its actual blanks, which the ideal must fill up, or which else remain bare & profitless forever."

"I am confirmed in my division of human energies. Ambitious people climb, but faithful people build."

" Every life has its actual blanks, which the ideal must fill up, or which else remain bare & profitless forever."

"When I see the elaborate study and ingenuity displayed by women in pursuit of trifles, I feel no doubt of their capacity for the most herculean undertakings."

"The strokes of the pen need deliberation as much as the sword needs swiftness."

Publications

  • The Hermaphrodite. Incomplete, but probably composed between 1846 and 1847. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.
  • Passion-Flowers. Poetry of Julia Ward Howe. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1854.
  • Words for the Hour. Poetry of Julia Ward Howe. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1857.
  • From Sunset Ridge; Poems Old and New]]. Poetry of Julia Ward Howe. Boston, New York: Houghton Mufflin & Co. 1898
  • Later Lyrics. Poetry of Julia Ward Howe. Boston: J. E. Tilton & company, 1866.
  • At Sunset. Poetry of Julia Ward Howe. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1910.
  • Sex and education: a reply to Dr. E.H. Clarke's "Sex in education." Boston: Roberts Bros., 1874.
  • Woman's work in America. New York: N. Holt and Co., 1891
  • Reminiscences: 1819-1899. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1899.
  • Representative women of New England. Boston: New England Historical Pub. Co., 1904.
  • Julia Ward Howe and the woman suffrage movement: a selection from her speeches and essays. Boston. D. Estes, 1913.
  • Richards, Laura Elizabeth. Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916. 2v.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/people_howe.html

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa013100b.htm

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/julia_ward_howe.htm

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/howejwriting/a/mothers_day.htm


External links

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