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Julia Ward-Howe (May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was a prominent suffragist and abolitionist. She is a published poet and wrote Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Julia was born in New York City, to Samuel and Julia Ward. Her father, Samuel, was a successful banker on Wall Street, and her mother was a published poet. Samuel was a strict Calvinist, though due to her curious nature and familial wealth Julia was able to become very well-read and frighteningly intelligent. Julia, though limited by her father, was as much a social butterfly as she was a scholar, and due to her father’s status as a successful banker, she was brought into contact with some of the greatest minds of her time. She interacted with Dickens, Charles Sumner, and Margaret Fuller to name a few through her brother, Sam. Sam married into the Astor family, which was highly prominent at the time, allowing him great social freedom that he brought Julia into. Julia’s brother was also the one to send home a library that he had collected while travelling in Europe, which Julia took full advantage of.

Shortly after her father’s death in 1839, Julia’s dear brother and sister-in-law also passed away, along with their newborn child. Julia and her sisters were cast into mourning time and again. Shortly after this, she met and married Samuel Gridley Howe. Samuel Howe was a physician famous reformist in the Greek Revolution. He worked towards prison reform and also campaigned for education efforts for the blind. Julia and Samuel had a tumultuous marriage. While a reformist, Samuel Howe thought that he should have a wife who supported him from the background, and Julia was anything but a wallflower. Nevertheless, they had six children together, one while on their honeymoon in Rome.

Julia being a published author troubled Samuel greatly, especially due to the fact that her poems many times had to do with critiques of women’s roles as wives, her own marriage, and women’s place in society. Their marriage problems escalated to the point where they separated in 1852. Samuel, when he became her husband, had also taken complete control of her estate income. Upon her husband’s death in 1876, Julia had found that through a series of bad investments that most of her money had been spent.

Julia’s writing and social activism were greatly shaped by her upbringing and married life. Much study has gone into her difficult marriage and how it influenced her work, both written and active.