Lydia Maria Child was one of the most influential writers and reformers in the nineteenth century. Her first novel, Hobomok, about an interracial marriage between a white woman and a Native American, shocked reviewers but was extremely successful. Her Frugal Housewife was the first American cookery book written for a non-aristocratic readership. She published the first juvenile magazine in America and edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard. When she published An Appeal, her literary standing and her income both dropped sharply. Her comprehensive scholarly analysis of the slavery question included a sweeping indictment of racism.
Child replies to Strickland’s request for her autograph and information about John Brown, noting, “The only letter I ever received from John Brown I gave to a Sanitary Commission Fair in time of the war. They Sold it for $25.” About Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry she writes, “Noble old man! His foray into Virginia seemed a wild project, but the feeling that impelled him was grand: and I know of nothing in History more sublime than his conduct in prison, and at the place of execution. I shall never again witness such moral heroism as was brought out by the struggle of Freedom with Slavery.”
