Julia Ward Howe

From New World Encyclopedia

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 who played a role in the founding of New York University.

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 (1765-1767) and later as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and his wife Anna Ray. Phoebe Green was a daughter of William Greene, also a Rhode Island Governor (1778-1786), and his wife Catharine Ray.

Marriage

At the age of 21 Julia Ward married physician Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe who had already gained notoriety through his published narrative of experiences in the Greek War of Independence. When they married he was the director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston. He was a radical Unitarian who was a part of the Transcendentalist movement. His religious convictions led him to take an active leadership role in the anti-slavery cause.

The couple made their home in South Boston, had six children (five of whom lived to adulthood and became successful professionals). Their marriage was at times quite difficult for Julia as her husband believed married woman should not have a life outside the home. She remained faithful to him throughout their mariage despite his attitudes towards women, his mismanagement of her father's inheritance, and his infidelities.

In the early years of their marriage she accepted his narrow views on women's roles and used her time at home to write poetry, to study philosophy and to learn several languages.

She was always an active supporter of his abolitionist views and they worked together during the Civil War in supporting the U.S. Sanitary Commission. The Commission played a key role in reforming the unsanitary conditions that played a significant role in the deaths of many wounded soldiers early in the war. Their work on this commision led to recognition by President Lincoln and in 1862 he invited Dr. Sam and J.W. Howe to Washington.

Public Life

Battle Hymn of the Republic

It was during their visit to Washington that Julia Ward Howe was approached by a minister who had read some of her published poems. He asked her if she could write a new song for the war. Pastor James Freeman Clarke asked her to write a song that would replace the song written in admiration of John Brown and his rebellion, "J.B's Body".

She later wrote of her experience of writing the Battle Hymn of the Republic as being one of almost divine revelation. She wrote: "I awoke the next morning in the grey of the early dawn, and to my astonishment, found that the wished-for-lines were arranging themselves in my brain. I lay quite still until the last verse had completed itself in my thoughts, then hastily arose, saying to myself, I shall lose this if I don't write it down immediately." She concluded her account by writing, "I lay down again and fell asleep, but not before feeling as if something very important had just happened to me."

Her poem was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in February 1862 and quickly became one of the most popular songs for the Union during the American Civil War. The poem was sung to the same tune as that of "J. B's Body" which, ironically, was originally written by a southerner for religious rivals.

Religion

Julia Ward Howe was born into a strict Episcopalian Calvinist family. When her father died she was only 20 and came to be influenced by a liberal uncle who was made her guardian. She then married Howe who was a radical Unitarian. She and her husband attended the church of Theodore Parker, a radical on women's rights and slavery.

Her own religious conviction became very evident in the Old and New Testament Biblical images used in her poem the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." She preached often in Unitarian and Universalist churches while attending the Church of the disciples, which was led by James Freeman Clarke.

In 1873 she hosted an annual gathering of women ministers and also helped to found the Free Religious Association.

She was invited to speak at the Parliament of the World's Religions held in 1893 at the Chicago World's Fair. It was the first organized effort to bring the world's religions together for dialogue. In her speech "What is Religion," she said,


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

Women's rights

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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