Welcome back to Isaac Hopper’s Diary: Declassified.  I’m Brigid Barstow, I’m a senior history and business major at St. Lawrence, and I will be your host for this episode: Hopper’s Daughter: The Amelia Ann Wilson Story.  If you haven’t listened to our first podcast, go back, and listen to that first to learn about who Isaac Hopper was.  So, let's HOP right into the episode.

Today we will be exploring the story of one of Isaac Hopper’s clients, Amelia Ann Wilson.  While she wasn’t a direct relative of Hopper, she was very important to him.  He took her into his own home, treated her like family, and even referred to her as his daughter in multiple letters. Amelia’s importance to Hopper led his friend and biographer, Lydia Maria CHILD, to include her story in Isaac Hopper’s own biography. Amelia’s story is one of great strength and a cycle of triumphs and setbacks.  She was an orphan, an addict, and spent time in and out of institutions, but with the help of Hopper and the Prison Association of New York, she earnestly strove for a better life.

Amelia was born immediately into an unlucky life.  She was born out of wedlock in 1816 in Hudson, NY.  Soon after she was sent to live with her aunt who owned and ran a boarding house in Albany.  But unfortunately, her childhood did not get much easier after that.  There she claimed to have been “harshly treated and frequently taunted with the circumstances of her own birth.”  Having been met with so much animosity from her aunt in childhood, she desperately looked forward to the day that she might break out and start a happier life for herself.  Her Aunt’s boarding house confined and defined her, and she wanted out.

Then one day, her ticket out strolled in and checked into the boarding house.  Amelia was 14 years old and still struggling to adjust to living under her aunt’s roof and rules.  That is until this man whose name remains uncertain arrived.  Hopper wrote in his diary that this man seduced her, convinced her to marry him, and then they left together, but considering her poor living situation, she was probably willing to be swept away.

They lived together for quite a while as he reassured her that a time would come when they would have their wedding.  Much time passed and Amelia was anxious but eventually, they were married.  Amelia was finally happy.  They had a nice home that she kept well and could pride herself on.  Things were finally looking up and life was better.  Or at least as far as she knew.

One day, after her husband had left for a business trip in the city, she began to grow both worried and suspicious after he failed to return after some time.  As time passed and her nervousness grew, she decided to go looking for him and ventured into the city.  What she found… would break her. 

Amelia found her husband living with another woman.  His business trips to the city were a façade for his gambling problem.  When she confronted him, he claimed to have never had anything to do with her.  She came to discover their whole marriage had been a fraud.  They had never been officially married under law.  In the words of Lydia Maria Child, she was “betrayed, deserted, and friendless.”  The betrayal of the only person she felt true love for broke her heart and left her with nowhere and no one to go to.

Driven mad by the abandonment of what Hopper called the “villain who had been her ruin,” she went into a frantic state.  She turned to the only options she seemed to have prostitution for money and intemperance to relieve her sorrow.  The heartbreak of desertion triggered the start of what would be a long-standing struggle with the use of drugs and alcohol.  Sources seem to be conflicted about the sort of prostitution house she became involved in. Hopper's diary claimed she was part of one that catered to “wealthy and respectable citizens.”  But CHILD claims the house was disreputable.  She only spent a few years working at the house before she caught a disease and had to leave.

Prostitution was looked down upon significantly during the mid-19th century.  The heavily religious influence on the public of New York City had a significant influence on this viewpoint.  Social stigmas that have been carried into today’s belief system still so often suppress the stories of sex workers throughout history.  To learn more about women in prostitution you should check out the episode entitled The Prostitution to Prison Pipeline.

These choices led Amelia to be in and out of different institutions for quite a while.  Amelia wasn’t a bad person, she just felt lost and couldn’t seem to find her way out.  In her moments of sobriety, she felt truly disgusted with her own self and lifestyle.

            The first of many institutions she ended up in was the hospital on Blackwell’s Island upon leaving the prostitution house because of her disease.  Blackwell’s Island is known today as Roosevelt Island.  It was an island in the city that was home to asylums, prisons, an almshouse, workhouses, and hospitals.  Conditions were infamous for being poor no matter which institution one might find themselves in on Blackwell’s Island.

            One day in 1845 Amelia found herself, yet again, in a drunken stupor.  Hopper’s diary tells us that she incited a fight with the man with whom she had been staying with and found herself in a dangerous situation.  When she was kicked out, she was forced to reflect on her choices and lifestyle. In the biography, Child discussed that Amelia was, “thoroughly disgusted with herself, and earnestly desired to lead a better life.”  She knew now was the time to try to get better.

            Frightened by her own dangerous continuation into intoxication, she ventured to the New York City jail known as The Tombs and sought out the help of the Prison Association of New York.  The case was brought to Hopper, and his wife and he agreed to take her into their own home as a domestic servant.  She was overjoyed at the thought of a renewed opportunity to improve her life.  She went in sincerely and hopefully.  She explained to the Hoppers the story of her troubled past, especially regarding her intemperance, making no intention of deception.  Hopper quoted her in the diary as saying, “I will tell you all I don’t want to deceive you.”

In their home, Amelia proved to be an exceptional worker.  She was diligent and meticulous and considered a fine addition to the Hopper household.  She was even known to decorate the kitchen and living spaces with little ornaments such as flowers.  Just as she took great interest and pride in her work, the Hopper family grew to take great interest in her wellbeing and future as well.  CHILD also was treated as part of the Hopper family and took great interest in Amelia’s case.  She too wrote letters in search of employment for her. In July 1846, CHILD wrote to a friend, “I want her to go to a new place, where not one individual asks her about having been intemperate, or the troubles that led to it.  Here, she cannot step into the street, without encountering those who have seen her intoxicated. Moreover, we have one odd member of the family, nervous and diseased, who, when she is “out of sorts,” reminds her of what she was when we first took her.  This ought never to be.  If I send her to Boston, can you, without much inconvenience, let her stay and work for you, till she can get a good place?”  

 Amelia was incredibly thankful for the Hopper family and Child’s help and guidance, claiming she had never felt like she knew what having a home felt like before being welcomed into theirs.

            Unfortunately, the mid-19th century was a time where substance abuse and addiction weren’t sympathized with or understood in the slightest, and Amelia struggled greatly.  She relapsed within a year's time with the Hoppers.  Hopper didn’t express worry but kept a positive outlook on her life’s turnaround and encouraged her to do the same.

Amelia showed a deep desire to reconnect with relatives, and thinking it would help, Hopper helped organize their contact after explaining her “reformation.”  They sent letters and eventually were able to schedule a visitation.  The connection to her relatives seemed to do good for Amelia’s mood and overall improvement, until she took another turn.  The exposure to her successful relatives with loves and families of their own seemed to strike sadness in her surrounding her lonely position in life.  According to CHILD, to combat the feelings of loneliness she used “opium in large quantities and had dreadful fits in consequence.”  Soon enough, an opium frenzy landed her behind bars when she was caught stealing from the very home that housed her when no one else would.

If you are interested in learning more about addiction in the mid-19th century, listen to the episode called: Alcohol Use and Incarceration.  Amelia coped using alcohol and drugs, in particular opium.  Amelia is just one of many cases in which drugs and the prison system intertwine.

Opium was a highly popular substance in the 19th century, particularly among women for its ability to relieve menstrual pains, morning sickness, and “diseases of a nervous character.”  Opium was also highly addictive but due to the lack of understanding of addiction they had in the 1800’s it was passed off merely as having weak character.  Since opium had become so highly overused in mid 19th century medicine, high levels of addiction followed.

The typical addict was high to middle class women, and by the late 1800’s women would make up 60 percent of opium addicts.  Opium is highly dangerous because over time, its users build tolerances and must increase their doses to feel it’s addictive effects again.  When users try to wean themselves off, they encounter harsh withdrawal symptoms that have been described by doctors from the time as, “whilst under a course of gradual reduction or of substitution, convulsed for an hour after hour in every muscle, and vomiting almost with intermission.”  But withdrawal wasn't understood the way it is today, and addiction was passed off as a fault of the addict’s character. 

            At the time opium was not restricted like so many drugs are today.  Dangerous drugs, such as opium were made available to anyone through the drugstore.  Even children were allowed to get it if they claimed they were picking it up for their parents.  Since it was so readily available in conjunction with so many women having past experiences with it because of its popular use in treating women, it became a very popular drug for abuse.

Amelia struggled with staying clean.  Substance abuse was poorly understood and reacted to.  Shame surrounding addicts was high and sympathy was low.  Once again Amelia suffered great concern over her actions during her moments of sobriety.  She showed true sorrow and regret, and could stay clean for weeks, sometimes even months, but unfortunately just couldn’t stop.

Child recalls Hopper’s reservations considering Amelia, recalling having lost count of the number of times he took her back after her fits and landing in jail.  Sometime in late 1847 or early 1848, Hopper requested that Amelia agree to be taken by the Magdalen Society of Philadelphia, after much deliberation and convincing she agreed to go.

The Magdalen Society of Philadelphia was a private organization founded by men in 1807.   Its goal, as it states in the institution’s constitution, was to “restore to paths of virtue those unhappy females who in unguarded hours have been robbed of their innocence.”  According to Lu Ann De Cunzo, a professor and chair of Anthropology at the University of Delaware, the Magdalen claimed to be the first institution in the US, concerned with caring for and reforming these so called “fallen” women.  These women that were considered ‘fallen’ include prostitutes, criminals, addicts, etc.

Majority of the magdalens were women between the ages of 17 and 23 who needed help and support of some capacity.  Oftentimes they were seeking sanctuary from disease, prison, the almshouse, unhappy family situations, abusive men, and/or poor economic circumstances.  The Magdalen provided them both a temporary home as well as tried to reform them into domestic servants, factory workers, seamstresses and laundresses with a goal to re-introduce them to society as better citizens.

During her time at the Magdalen Society, Hopper wrote, and his family visited Amelia often.  Hopper didn’t give up hope for Amelia, no, his love just grew stronger.  He continued to write her letters and in them he is most reassuring, telling her he is hopeful that she should improve even moreso, encouraging her to improve sooner in hopes that she may return home, and discussing the state of the family members and household she left behind.

No matter the amount Hopper wrote to her in encouragement, her substance use, and temper were issues that went unresolved.  Child wrote: “The wreck was too complete to admit of repair.  The poor creature occasionally struggled hard to do better; but her constitution was destroyed by vice and hardship; her feelings were blunted by suffering, and her naturally bright faculties were stupefied by opium.”

After leaving the Magdalen society between late 1848 and early 1849, Amelia continued as a domestic servant for a family in the country for a short time before relapsing again.  She went on to continue in a seemingly endless cycle of soberness and falling back into intemperance.  Though she tried, she couldn’t ever stay away from the bottle for good.

All too commonly that not much history is written or saved in regard to ex-prostitutes and incarcerated women during the mid-19th century.  Amelia was written about to great extent by Hopper and his associate Child, but after her last placement with her family in the country, she becomes harder to track.  She was discovered to have entered the Almshouse around August of 1850 where she was again readmitted two years later.

<<light calming background music from being while the last paragraph is being spoken then fade under>> When Hopper died in 1852 Amelia escaped the almshouse to attend the funeral.  She went to express her thanks for his faith and attempts to give her a better life.  While she never succeeded in breaking free of her alcoholism, she never stopped appreciating Hopper for his friendship throughout all the hardships.  Child recalls in her biography of Hopper that “[Amelia], with whose waywardness he had borne so patiently, escaped from confinement, several miles distant, and with sobs implored ‘to see that good old man once more.’”  To Amelia, Hopper was the family she never had but had always hoped for.  While not all stories can have happy endings, we can find peace in knowing that she had someone who never gave up on her.

            <<fade in “Night Snow”>> “Today’s episode was written and produced by me, Brigid Barstow.  With special thanks to Eric Williams-Bergen and Nicole Roche [Ro-Shay], the podcasting team at St. Lawrence University.  Also, a special shout out to historian and professor Liz Regosin, who organized this great project and helped me significantly with research.  The theme music for this podcast is Night Snow, by Asher Fulero, found on You tube audio library.  Be sure to check out the episode notes on the diary website, Issac [dash] Hopper [dot org].  There you’ll find a source list for this episode.  Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed learning about Amelia as much as I did.” <<exit music>>