Lydia
Maria Child was an American abolitionist, women's rights activist,
opponent of American expansionism, Indian rights activist, novelist,
and journalist. She is perhaps most remembered for her poem "Over
the River and Through the Woods." (Her Grandfather's House,
restored by Tufts University in 1976, still stands near the Mystic
River on South Street in Medford, Massachusetts.)
She
was born in Medford, Massachusetts to Susannah Rand Francis and
Convers Francis. She was the wife of Boston lawyer David Lee Child.
She
was a women's rights activist, but did not believe significant
progress for women could be made until after the abolition of
slavery. Her 1833 book "An Appeal in Favor of That Class
of Americans Called Africans" argued in favor of the immediate
emancipation of the slaves, and she is sometimes said to have
been the first white person to have written a book in support
of this policy.
In
1839, she was elected to the executive committee of the American
Anti-Slavery Society, and became editor of the society's "National
Anti-Slavery Standard" in 1841. In 1861, Child helped Harriet
Ann Jacobs, with her "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl".
During
the 1860s, Child wrote pamphlets on Indian rights. The most prominent,
"An appeal for the Indians" (1868), called upon government
officials, as well as religious leaders, to bring justice to American
Indians. Her presentation sparked Peter Cooper's interest in Indian
issues, and led to the founding of the United States Indian Commission
and the subsequent Peace Policy in the administration of Ulysses
S. Grant.
Child's
works
"Hobomok: A tale of Early Times, by an American" (1824)
was the first historical novel published in the United States
"The Rebels" (1825).
"Juvenile Miscellany" (1826)
"The Frugal Housewife" (1829)
"An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans"
(1833)
"Letters from New York" (1843)
"Isaac T. Hopper: A True Life" (1853)
"The Freedmen's Book" (1865)
"An appeal for the Indians" (1868) |
