Jackson, Helen Hunt (1830-1885)

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Eugenie M. Bacon to Jane Addams, March 7, 1910

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Birth Date

1830-10-15

Death Date

1885-08-12

Birthplace

Amherst, MA

Biographical Text

Helen Hunt Jackson attended Ipswich Female Seminary and the Abbott Institute. She published her first successful poem, "Coronation" in The Atlantic in 1869. In 1879, after hearing a presentation in Boston on the mistreatment of Native Americans, Jackson became an activist for Native Americans, investigating and publicizing government misconduct. In 1881 she published her first novel in her own name, A Century of Dishonor, which called for significant reform in government policy toward Native Americans. Jackson then moved to California to study missions and "Mission Indians," and was appointed to be an Interior Department agent.

Jackson married Edward Bissell Hunt in 1852. They had two children together, though both died young. After her husband's death, she married William Sharpless Jackson in 1875. Jackson died in 1885 of stomach cancer.