Hannah Anderson Ropes

Hannah Anderson Ropes ( – ) was an American nurse, abolitionist, and writer. Early life and marriage Ropes was born Hannah Anderson Chandler on in New Gloucester, Maine. She was the seventh of ten children of Peleg Chandler, a Maine lawyer, and Esther Parsons Chandler. Her brothers Theophilus and Peleg became lawyers and politicians in Boston. Nothing is known of her schooling, but given her family's income and social position it is likely she was well educated. In February 1834, she married William Henry Ropes, an educator who was forced to supplement his income through farming. He was principal of the Foxcroft Academy (1832-1835), Milton Academy (1836-1837), and Waltham High School (1837-1840). They had four children, and two survived to adulthood: Edward Elson Ropes (b. 1837) and Alice Shephard Ropes (b. 1841). In 1837, she joined the Boston Society of the New Jerusalem and embraced Swedenborgianism, a controversial contrast with the established churches favored by New England society, a contrast she relished as part of her lifelong individualism.