Lavinia Stoddard

Lavinia Stoddard was an American poet and school founder from Connecticut. She spent her early years in New Jersey, where she received her education. After marrying physician William Stoddard, she co-founded and ran an academy in Troy, New York, which became known for its educational work in the community. Stoddard wrote numerous poems that were published anonymously in periodicals, including "The Soul’s Defiance", which reflected her personal experiences and was widely reprinted in nineteenth-century American anthologies. She spent her final years in Alabama due to ill health and died there in 1820.