"Such as I am, I am here ready to work according to my conscience and my ability; providing nothing but diligence and fidelity, refusing the shadow of a fetter on my free expression of opinion, from any man, or body of men and equally careful to respect the freedom of others, whether as individuals or societies."
|
Lydia Maria Child was well-known in her own time as a radical abolitionist. She had strong ideas about religion, politics, and the conditions of women and children. Child used her work as an author to promote her ideals, despite the fact that many people disagreed with her.
Her novel Hobomok: A Tale of Early Times was published in 1824. Hobomok, her first novel, bore witness of her abolitionist attitude because it showed Native Americans as sympathetic characters, not as savages as was the common practice. Her Ladies Family Library, short biographies published from 1832 to 1835, promoted feminist ideas through the use of two independent female characters.
“Old dreams vanished, old associates departed, and all things became new."
Child continued her work through such publications as The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper, involvement in the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and other individual abolitionists. The major point of her career as both an author and an abolitionist was the publication of An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans in 1833. This publication told of Child’s stance against slavery, saying that is went against Christian teaching and brought degradation to both slaves and masters.
"When there is anti-slavery work to be done, I feel as young as twenty."
Child continued her activism for Native Americans, women, and African Americans through organizations such as Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association and Free Religious Association, her support for women’s suffrage, and by donating money to various worthy causes until her death in 1880.
Works Cited:
Goodwin, Joan. Lydia Maria Child. UUA. Web. 05 March 2012. <http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/lydiamariachild.html>
Lydia Maria Child's Appeal. University of Virginia. Web. 05 March 2012.
<http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/childhp.html>
-Kiley Ging
Class of Americans Called Africans, I wonder if that is where the proper name African American, Native American, ect. came from? Was she the first woman author to "sympathize" with the Indian in a novel? Sounds like she was a spunky woman! I love her quote ...."work to be done, I still feel young!" We need more people like her today.
ReplyDeleteMary Harper
I love the quotes! Very inspiring. I wonder with Mary if Child was the first author to show Native Americans as sympathetic characters. I wonder how society took her novel at the time it came out. She seems to be quite the revolutionary, though.
ReplyDelete-Lenea Patterson