Born: 11 February 1802, United States
Died: 20 October 1880
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Lydia Maria Francis
The following is republished from the National Park Service. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Through the skill of her pen, Lydia Maria Child advocated for the rights of others as a writer and editor. She followed her written words with action by actively participating in the local and national abolitionist and early women’s rights movements.
Born on February 11, 1802 to Convers Francis and Susanna Rand, Lydia Francis grew up the youngest of six children in Medford, Massachusetts. Her father had “peculiarly zealous” anti-slavery convictions, which likely influenced Lydia. Following her mother Susanna’s death in 1814, she moved to Maine for a brief time to live with her sister before returning to Massachusetts.
In 1824, Lydia Maria Francis published her first book, Hobomok, while living in Watertown, Massachusetts. The historical fiction novel tells the story of an interracial marriage between a Native American man, Hobomok, and a white woman, Mary Conant, in the 1620s and 30s in New England. The novel, at the time, challenged contemporary understandings of intercultural relations. By 1829, she had written two other books, Juvenile Miscellany, a “pioneer among children’s magazines,” and Frugal Housewife, a book of recipes and housekeeping advice.
Lydia Maria Francis married lawyer David Lee Child on October 3, 1828. David Lee Child served as one of the first members of the first Anti-Slavery Society in the United States, alongside founder William Lloyd Garrison. The Childs grew active in the abolitionist movement while living together in Boston.
In 1833, Lydia Maria Child published An Appeal in Favor of that class of Americans Called Africans. The book tells a comparative history of slavery, in the United States and other countries, while advocating against slavery and colonialization. She touched on the political atmosphere of the United States:
Every man who buys a slave promotes this traffic, by raising the value of the article; every man who owns a slave, indirectly countenances it; every man who allows that slavery is a lamentable necessity, contributes his share to support it; and he who votes for admitting a slave-holding State into the Union, fearfully augments the amount of this crime.
With the publication of An Appeal, Child thrust herself into the abolitionist movement. In doing so, she faced swift and all-encompassing criticism from the public, putting her literary career in jeapordy. But within the abolitionist community, she received high praise for taking such a prominent stance against the institution of slavery.
Child grew move involved in anti-slavery work. At the Anti-Slavery Office on Washington Street, she held the first antislavery fair in Boston in 1834. Child continued to publish anti-slavery annuals, pamphlets, and small books.
While at first weary of belonging to a female-only organization, Child joined the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. She also served as Vice President at the 1838 Convention of Anti-Slavery Women alongside other activists such as Lucretia Mott, the Grimké sisters, and Mary S. Parker. Child actively participated in petitioning efforts of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. She also advocated for women’s rights, one of the controversial issues that contributed to the dissolution of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society.
Her contributions to the anti-slavery movement extended beyond Boston. For example, in May of 1841, Lydia Maria Child began editing the New York-based paper, The National Anti-Slavery Standard, a position she held for two years. After radical abolitionist John Brown’s arrest at Harper’s Ferry, the American Anti-Slavery Society published letters between Child, Virginia’s Governor Henry Wise, and the imprisoned John Brown to garner support for abolition. In 1860, William Cooper Nell introduced Lydia Maria Child to Harriet Jacobs, the author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Child ultimately edited Harriet Jacob’s work and “tirelessly mailed copies, arranged for reviews, and searched out activists to identify local booksellers willing to carry the slave narrative.”
In addition to abolitionist causes, Lydia Maria Child supported the early women’s suffrage movement. In 1835, she compiled and edited the fourth volume of the Ladies’ Family Library, The History of the Condition of Women in Various Ages and Nations, considered “the first attempt in America to catalogue information on feminism.” She also frequently contributed pieces for the suffrage publication the for the suffrage publication the Woman’s Journal. Suffragist Lucy Stone invited Child to the 1873 New England Women’s Tea Party, but she declined due to the ailing health of her husband. She wrote to Stone, “It is peculiarly appropriate that women should commemorate resistance to ‘taxation without representation,’ and I hope you will make the most of it.”
Child also advocated for the rights of Native Americans. Similar to her book An Appeal in Favor of that class of Americans Called Africans, Child wrote An Appeal for the Indians in 1868, with a goal “to undermine Euro-Americans assumed position of moral and racial superiority and bring the two groups into a more harmonious and familial relationship.”
Lydia Maria Child died in Wayland on October 20, 1880 at 78 years old from disease of the heart. In her will, Child left money to organizations such as the Home for Aged Colored Women, the Hampton Agricultural College, and friends of Suffrage for Women, amongst fellow abolitionists, family, and friends.
Despite all her accomplishments and renown as a social reformer, Child viewed her role as an activist quite differently. In a personal letter to Lucy Stone, she once reflected:
Moreover, I will confess what may lower me in your opinion, I am ranked among reformers, but I never liked reforms. Conscience whipped me into the Anti-Slavery battle, but I was out of my element there. And now that the fighting is done, I am glad to forget it all, as I do last years storms. I never want to talk about it.
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), an American writer. Her novel, “The Rebels, a Tale of the Revolution,” appeared in 1825 and was very popular. The following year she commenced the Juvenile Miscellany, a monthly magazine, which for eight years was under her management. In 1828 she was married to David Lee Child, a lawyer of Boston. When the anti-slavery movement was commenced, Mrs. Child identified herself with it at the beginning and wrote one of the first distinctive books on that subject, “An Appeal in behalf of that class of Americans called, Africans,” in which she advocated the immediate emancipation of the negro. In 1836 she wrote “Philothea,” a Grecian romance of the time of Pericles and Aspasia, and later published “A History of the Condition of Women in All Ages and Nations,” and several volumes of stories for children.
The following is excerpted from Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.
Lydia Maria Child, 1802-1880, Anti-Slavery Advocate
Her father, David Francis, was a baker in Medford, Mass. Miss Francis showed a market craving for books when quite young.
Her first novel Hobomok, was occasioned by an article in the North American Review in which the writer enthusiastically set forth the adaptation of early New England history to the purposes of fiction. She had never written for the press, but the though seized her and she wrote the first chapter of her novel the same day. In six weeks, the story was finished and upon being published was so well received that she wrote next year The Rebels; or, Boston Before the Revolution.
She next opened a private school in Watertown Mass., and about the same time started Juvenile Miscellany, a children’s magazine.
When twenty-six years of age she married David Lee Child, a Boston lawyer. She wrote The Mother’s Book, The girl’s Own Book, The History of Women, and Biographies of Good Wives.
She was now happily married, enjoyed a generous income, and was surrounded by friends of high social standing. But a change came because of herself and husband becoming identified with the anti-slavery movement. The sale of her books fell off, subscriptions to her magazine were withdrawn, and the homes of many former friends were no longer open to her.
But she had taken her position as a matter of conscience and no loss of friends, fame, or fortune could cause her to turn back. She wrote and published An Appeal on Behalf of that Class of Americans Called Africans. From a quiet and remunerative literary life she was thrust into the midst of a fierce fight.
In 1844 Mr. and Mrs. Child removed to New York and became joint editors of The Anti-Slavery Standard. Mr. Child’s health was poor and much of the time his wife worked on bravely and almost alone. One of her biographers has said, “No man or woman of that period rendered more substantial service to the cause of freedom or made such a great renunciation to do it.”
The following is excerpted from A Cyclopædia of Female Biography, published 1857 by Groomsbridge and Sons and edited by Henry Gardiner Adams.
Wife of David Lee Child, was born in Massachusetts, but passed the early portion of her youth in Maine, whither her father, Mr. Francis, had removed when she was quite young. She found few literary privileges in the place of her residence, but she had the genius that nourishes itself on nature; and from the influence ⟨of⟩ the wild scenes which surrounded her home in childhood, she doubtless, draws even now much of the freshness of thought and vigour of style which mark her productions.
In 1823, being on a visit to her brother, the Rev. Conyers Francis, then pastor of the Unitarian Church at Watertown, Massachusetts, Miss Francis commenced her literary life with “Hobomok, a Story of the Pilgrims;” which was written in six weeks, and published in 1824; ever since that time its author has kept her place as a faithful labourer in the field of literature, and perhaps not one of the American female writers has had wider influence, or made more earnest efforts to do good with her talents. Her next work, “The Rebels,” was published in 1825; soon afterwards Miss Francis became Mrs. Child, and her married life has been a true and lovely exemplification of the domestic concord which congenial minds produce as well as enjoy.
In 1827, Mrs. Child engaged as editor of “The Juvenile Miscellany,” the first monthly periodical issued in the Union for Children. Under her care the work became very popular; she has a warm sympathy with the young—her genius harmonized with the undertaking, and some of the articles in this “Miscellany” are among the best she has written. During the six following years, Mrs. Child’s pen was incessantly employed. Besides her editorial duties she published, successively—”The Frugal Housewife,” written as she said in the preface, “for the poor,” and one of the most useful books of its kind extant—”The Mother’s Book,” an excellent manual in training children, though the author has never been a mother—and “The Girl’s Book,” designed as a holiday present, and descriptive of Children’s plays. She also prepared five volumes for “The Ladies’ Family Library,” comprising “Lives of Madame de Staël and Madame Roland;” “Lady Russell and Madame Guyon;” “Biographies of Good Wives;” and the “History and Condition of Woman;” which works were published in Boston. Besides all these she published in 1833, “The Coronal,” a collection of miscellaneous pieces, in prose and verse. The most important step in her literary career was that which she took with the abolitionists, by issuing her “Appeal for that class of Americans called Africans.” This appeal was written with that earnest and honest enthusiasm pervading all Mrs. Child’s benevolent efforts. The design of the abolitionists is the improvement and happiness of the coloured race; for this end Mrs. Child devoted her noblest talents, her holiest aspirations.
Since 1883, only three works of her’s have been published; “Philothea” appeared in 1835, a charming romance, filled with the pure aspirations of genius, and rich in classical lore; the scene being laid in Greece in the time of Pericles and Aspasia. The work is in one volume, and was planned and partly written before its author entered the arena of party; but the bitter feelings engendered by this strife, have prevented the merits of this remarkable book from being appreciated as they deserve.
In 1841, Mr. and Mrs. Child removed from Boston to the city of New York, and became conductors of “The National Anti-Slavery Standard.” Mrs. Child, while assisting in her husband’s editorial duties, now commenced a Series of Letters, partly for the “Boston Courier,” a popular newspaper, and partly for the “Standard,” (her own paper,) which after being thus published, were collected and re-issued in two volumes, entitled “Letters from New York.” This work has been very popular. Mrs. Child is a close observer, she knows “how to observe,” and better still, she has a poetical imagination and a pure, warm, loving heart, which invests her descriptions with a peculiar charm. An English Reviewer has well remarked concerning Mrs. Child:—”Whatever comes to her from without, whether through the eye or the ear, whether in nature or art, is reflected in her writings with a halo of beauty thrown about it by her own fancy; and thus presented, it appeals to our sympathies, and awakens an interest which carves it upon the memory in letters of gold. But she has yet loftier claims to respect than a poetical nature. She is a philosopher, and, better still, a religious philosopher. Every page presents to us scraps of wisdom, not pedantically put forth, as if to attract admiration, but thrown out by the way in seeming unconsciousness, and as part of her ordinary thoughts.”
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