Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880)

Lydia Maria Child was a prominent abolitionist, women’s right’s activist, and advocate for Native American rights. Even before her activism, she had long been a woman of letters, earning a small but respectable income as a novelist and editor. In the 1830s, she and her husband David Lee Child (1794-1874) joined the abolitionist cause, resulting in her most famous work, An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans, published in 1833 and included in this exhibit. From 1841 until 1843, she was the editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, making her the first woman to edit a national political paper.