Lydia Maria Child 1802-1880

From a talk titled, “Here are some of her accomplishments” by Jane Sciacca, October 2018

Mrs. Child has been honored by her election to the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and the National Abolition Hall of Fame. On a recent trip to the National African-American Museum of History and Culture, I was delighted to see that she was one of the few white people honored with a photo for her contributions to the abolitionist movement- along with Abraham Lincoln, John Brown and William Lloyd Garrison. (and the sole woman)

Maria was a best-selling advice author while in her twenties. Her American Frugal Housewife was in its twelfth edition three years after its release in 1829. It still adorns parlor tables at historical sites such as Old Sturbridge Village as representative of its time and has been reprinted in the modern era by Applewood Press.

• She was a pioneer of children’s literature with her publication of Juvenile Miscellany. An exhibit at the Boston Public Library several years ago , sponsored by Boston College, credited her with the first writing for children that did not specifically advocate and inculcate a specific religion.
• She was an abolitionist who willingly forfeited her writing career when she published one of the first books, Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans, advocating the immediate emancipation of slaves and an end to prejudice against African Americans.
• She was the first woman to edit a newspaper dedicated to public policy- the National Anti-Slavery Standard.
• She was a tireless reformer and advocate of woman’s rights.
• She was the family bread-winner in a man’s world.
• She promoted religious tolerance.
• She was a wife and a devoted daughter. She came to Wayland to care for her ailing father.
• She was a loving friend and neighbor. Our collection of items that belonged to her came from donations by the families she gave her belongings to.
• She was equally comfortable writing to Wayland friends and neighbors, Susan and Emma Damon, as she was in writing to Sen. Charles Sumner, William Lloyd Garrison and John Brown.
• She was the author of one of the most enduring poems ever written. The song that begins “over the river and through the wood,” not the author, has immediate recognition. And how many other songs do you know of that celebrate Thanksgiving- a holiday that represents togetherness rather than gifts?

From an extremely young age, Child showed a deep compassion for the oppressed. She was born in 1802 in Medford, MA to Convers- a baker- and Susannah Francis. She was the youngest of five children. After her mother’s death when she was only 11, Child moved to Maine and lived with her sister and sister’s family. There she encountered her first reform and humanitarian passion- the American Indian. Her first book, Hobomok,written when she was 22, not only launched her writing career, but set her life course on the path of reform. The book, which depicted the marriage of a young Puritan woman to a Native American with whom she bore a child, was extremely well-received although most people did not suspect that the author was a woman.

When she was 24, Child began editing Juvenile Miscellany, the first successful periodical for children in the United States. She also wrote many of the articles and stories in it that inspired a generation of young people with her unique blend of practical wisdom and moral uplift.

While still in her twenties, her advice books became wildly popular, especially The Frugal Housewife, later retitled The American Frugal Housewife, published soon after her marriage to David Lee Child, a Harvard-educated lawyer and starry-eyed idealist. She broke new ground by writing for the “middling sort”- women without servants who “struggled to make do.” These books catapulted her into the position of being one of- if not- the most popular writer in America.

In the midst of her success, Child experienced a life-altering event when, in 1830, she met the fiery abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, a champion of immediate emancipation of America’s slaves. “For this cause I wish to live- for this cause I am willing to die,” she would soon write. But first she needed to educate herself. By 1833, Child was ready to go public with her research and published her Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans called Africans.The book not only called for immediate emancipation of the slaves, it attacked racial prejudice, advocated intermarriage between the races and exalted African culture and beliefs. And while she castigated the South, she did not spare the North- “let us not flatter ourselves that we are in reality any better than our brethren in the South. Thanks to our soil and climate, and the early exertions of the Quakers, the form of slavery does not exist among us; but the very spirit of the hateful and mischievous thing is here in all its strength.” Her former admirers abandoned her. Their homes and businesses were closed to her. Her booming writing career was at an end. She not only suffered personal scorn but her much-needed income had vanished. Her husband’s schemes for human betterment plunged them deeper and deeper into debt, forcing her later into separating any income she might receive as a reform writer, from his.

In 1841, Child became editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, an abolitionist newspaper based in New York City- a job first offered to her husband. This gave her the distinction of becoming the first woman in the US to head a newspaper committed to public policy. She sought not just to reach those already committed, but to recruit new adherents. Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner and Thomas Wentworth Higginson all credit Child with introducing them to the cause.

She saw her cause as divinely inspired, and while she held the reins of the Standard, she sought to address other needed reforms as well. Her “Letters from New York,” which first appeared as a column in the paper attacked a vast range of humanitarian disgraces- urban poverty, an unjust prison system, capital punishment, the oppression of women, prostitution, alcoholism, ethnic and religious persecution. Slavery was the most pressing injustice in her overall quest to secure rights for all people so the United States could take its place as a truly civilized nation.

In 1853, Child, with all this fame and notoriety under her belt, and David moved to Wayland, which she described as “a drowsy village” so that she could care for her ailing father. It would be her home for the rest of her life. In Wayland, Child kept abreast of the horrific series of events that culminated in the Civil War- the Compromise of 1850, the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, the rendition of fugitive slaves from Boston, the near-death by caning of Sen. Charles Sumner by a pro- slavery congressman, the Dred Scot decision of the Supreme Court which declared African-Americans to be noncitizens, and the raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia by radical abolitionist John Brown. Child wrote to Brown, whom she had never met, that while she did not believe in his methods, she honored his intentions and admired his courage. She offered to go to his prison in Charlestown, Virginia and care for him while he was awaiting the death penalty. This he refused and asked her to help his family and fellow captives instead. But it was not Child’s letter to Brown that catapulted her back into the spotlight and made her, once again, a best-selling author. That came about through correspondence between herself and two of Brown’s most ardent critics and pro-slavery advocates- Gov. Henry Wise of Virginia, Brown’s captor, and Mrs. Margaretta Mason, wife of Virginia’s senator, James Mason. The correspondence was circulated in newspapers. Gathered in pamphlet form by the American Anti-Slavery Society, an amazing 300,000 copies were distributed throughout the free states.

Here is an excerpt Child wrote to Mrs. Mason:

“To the personal questions you ask me, I will reply in the name of all the women in New England. It would be extremely difficult to find any women in our villages who does not sew for the poor, and watch with the sick, whenever occasion

requires. We pay our domestics generous wages, with which they can purchase as many Christmas gowns as they please; a process far better for their characters, as well as our own, than to receive their clothing as a charity, after being deprived of just payment for their labor. I have never known an instance where the ‘pangs of maternity’ did not meet with requisite assistance; and here in the North, after we have helped the mothers, we do not sell the babies.”

While Child longed to personally aid the war effort, she was limited by age, sex and an ailing husband. Her efforts included sewing for the troops and contributing any money she could spare to help the Union.

In 1865, harkening back to her earlier advice books, Child published The Freedmen’s Book, filled with suggestions and encouragement for the newly- emancipated slaves. As the era of Reconstruction would prove, Child was painfully aware that African Americans had only taken one small step, although an important one, toward racial justice and equality.

The remaining years of Child’s life were spent in advocating reforms and addressing injustice. She continued to write. She wrote more on the unequal treatment of women, 50% of the population, as she wryly noted. Not only should women have the vote, but participate in their government and in the business- world. She continued to call for religious tolerance, a long-held belief. She did not belong to any organized religion, but had a profound sense of a moral universe endowed by the Creator. There was no arrogance or pretension in her belief- it resided in the human heart. The world was comprised of one race to her- the human race- and she never wavered in that conviction.

“It is my mission to help in the breaking down of classes, and to make all men feel as if they were brethren of the same family, sharing the same rights, the same capabilities, and the same responsibilities. While my hand can hold a pen, I will use it to this end; and while my brain can earn a dollar, I will devote it to this end.”

She settled into a quiet life enjoying her Wayland friends and neighbors and caring for her husband, who died in 1874. Child died on October 20, 1880 at the age of 78 and is buried in Wayland’s North Cemetery. Age may have curtailed her outward movements, but it never touched her inner passions.

Lydia Maria Child was a unique individual.

“Nature made us individuals, as she did the flowers and the pebbles; but we are afraid to be peculiar, and so our society resembles a bag of marbles, or a string of mold candles. Why should we all dress after the same fashion? The frost never paints my windows twice alike.”

Nothing symbolized Child’s independent spirit more than a hat that Child owned that is now the prized possession of the Wayland Historical Society.

ca. 1820 Green; 8 rings of reed, 12′ height, 4′ flounce in back with matching bow, cream colored with pink splashes ties not original to hat. Hand made with silk thread.

Condition: Faded, very worn (but now refurbished by the Wayland Historical Society)

Given to Damon family by LMC.

May of been part of LMC’s wedding trousseau- 1828. Donor: Mabel Damon

It is this hat that Laura uses as a metaphor for Child’s life and values. I will leave it at that and let Laura illustrate that point.

Some of Maria’s more fashion-conscious friends questioned her preference for dowdy headgear. ‘When the war is over, I will buy a new bonnet,’ she had promised in February 1865, but two years later this purchase had yet to be made. As she explained to Marianne Silsbee, she was waiting until all the freedmen had homes and spelling books. She also knew, she said, that ‘if I should ever get one within hailing distance of the fashion, I shall find myself in a dilemma for I have promised several people that I will call upon them when I get a fashionable bonnet. Wouldn’t that be a scrape to get into?”

The hat did not matter to her. In fact, as it and she grew older, it became more of a statement to her- that what she was wearing should not matter to anyone-what should matter is the person wearing the hat.