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Julia Ward Howe

(1819 - 1910)

Born to a prominent New York family related by marriage to the Astors, Julia Ward Howe wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” worked tirelessly as a feminist and abolitionist reformer, and gave birth to six children.

All Writing

Miscellany

“Battle Hymn of the Republic” author Julia Ward Howe complained to her sister in August 1846 about the death of her sister-in-law: “My mourning has been quite an inconvenience to me this summer. I had just spent all the money I could afford for my summer clothes and was forced to spend $30 more for black dresses,” Howe wrote. “The black clothes, however, seem to me very idle things, and I shall leave word in my will that no one shall wear them for me.”

Issues Contributed