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Isaac Tatem Hopper, who was born in Deptford Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey, December 3, 1771; and who died in New York City, May 7, 1852, learned the tailor's trade in Philadelphia and lived there until 1829, when he went to New York to manage a Hicksite Quaker bookstore. He had joined the Quakers in Philadelphia and had became a member of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. From 1841 to 1845 he was treasurer and book agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society (Ruchames IV 15). He supported nonresistance and was an active participant in the underground railroad in Philadelphia and New York. It has been said that fugitive slaves knew him as well as they did the North Star. Hopper utilized nonviolence effectively in protecting the fugitives from kidnapers, the police, and others who tried to catch them and return them to captivity (Merrill III 72; V 20; Mabee 276). In the early 1840s he and other antislavery New Yorkers were expelled from the Society of Friends. As a result of this action, many Friends in New York and Pennsylvania left the Society in protest..

Like Joseph A. Dugdale, Hopper worked for prison reforms, becoming particularly active in such work after 1845. In addition he proved a friend to free blacks, and helped the poor, apprentices, the sick, and the insane (Merrill III 72; Ruchames IV 15).

The letter below appears to have been written to Joseph A. Dugdale and shared with Milo A. Townsend.

Letter 43

from Isaac Hopper

New York 5 mo 17th 1844

My dear friend

Thy very acceptable favor of the 3rd instant came duly to hand, which afresh excited my near sympathy and unity with my beloved and deeply tried friends in your parts, who have suffered sore persecution for your faithfulness and dedication to the convictions of truth as manifested in the secret of your own souls. I should be exceedingly glad if I had it in my power to attend the conference to be held the 25th of this month; but that is impracticable-- nevertheless I shall be with you in spirit. My prayers are for you, that the Lord almighty in the riches of his mercy may guide you and bless you in your counsels and deliberations, and I have a comfortable hope that this will be the case if you humbly and reverently seek for it.

The idea suggested in thy letter, of your becoming a branch of Ohio yearly meeting, had occurred to me as advisable if it can be accomplished. But not being fully acquainted with all the circumstances of your situation, I am not a competent judge in the case. It is a common saying and a very just one that "wisdom is profitable to direct," and I hope you may be favored with it.

It is matter of astonishment to me that any individual should be suffered to produce so much unsettlement in the Society of Friends as George F. White has done. But many friends begin to see through his sophistry. He openly asserts that "a man may join the banditti, he may sail under the pirate's flag, he may steep his feet in the blood of the slain and not sin against God," and much more of the same character, and all this is tolerated by the meeting of which he is a member. He lately said in the course of his discourse in a public meeting that the hireling priests were no better than the prophets of Baal, that there was not one of them a bit better than the most degraded being that crawls the streets. Soon after he asserted that the abolition lecturers, book agents and Editors were a thousand times worse than the hireling priests-- that they were worse than Ahab or Jezebel and yet he will call no man a sinner. He says Paul did not sin in persecuting the church, that he was blessed in it-- notwithstanding Paul's own testimony, who declared in reference to that very case that he was a blasphemer and injurious and the chief of sinners.

The Society of Friends are in a shattered condition, great dissatisfaction and disunion prevails throughout this yearly meeting occasioned by the disownment of Charles Marriott and others. Why will friends not learn wisdom by the experience of what they have suffered. It really seems as if they were infatuated, and yet there is a few who, I trust, are settled on that rock that cannot be moved-- against which the winds and the floods beat in vain. In conclusion I would say, in patience possess your souls.

I remain truly thy very

Affectionate friend

Isaac Hopper

Give my love affectionately to all my friends.

To Joseph A. Dugdale

There are no secrets in this letter. Please let me hear from thee soon after your conference.

And so ends all known reference to Isaac Hopper in Milo's archives.