Following the American Revolutionary War, Pennsylvania abolished slavery before the end of the 18th century.

The state, and especially the major port city of Philadelphia, became a destination and byway for fugitive slaves escaping the South.

Hopper was an overseer of the Negro School for Children in Philadelphia, which was founded by the early abolitionist Anthony Benezet before the Revolutionary War and operated through the nineteenth century.

He was one of the founders and the secretary of a society for the employment of the poor; a volunteer prison inspector; a member of a fire company, and a guardian of abused apprentices.

She also founded an asylum for women prisoners who had been released, to help with their re-entry to society, which she named for her father as the "Isaac T. Hopper Home".

Hopper frequently visited the New York state capital of Albany to represent the association and to address the legislature.

If he was humorous, his audience were full of laughter; if solemn, a death-like stillness reigned; if pathetic, tears flowed all around him.