Lydia Maria Child

Author and social reformer Lydia Marie Child was born on February 11, 1803, into a staunchly abolitionist family (a stance that was quite unpopular at the time). She attended a seminar for a year, and her social awareness was largely due to the influence of her brother, a Unitarian clergyman who later became a professor at Harvard Divinity School. She took up the cause not only of the abolition of slavery but also the care of the poor. She wrote many books on various subjects, ranging from anti-slavery tracts to tips for housewives.

In 1826 she founded the first magazine directed at children, "The Juvenile Miscellany".

She discontinued that publication in 1833 when she married David Child and the two published "An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans". The book came under severe criticism from many quarters of American society--especially in the South--largely due to the fact that it advocated the formal education of blacks, but overall it focused attention on a subject that many Americans of the time knew little or nothing about--slavery--and actually converted some slaveowners to the abolitionist cause.

From 1840-44 she and her husband were the editors of "The National Anti-Slavery Standard", a newspaper published weekly in New York City.

They moved to Wayland, Massachusetts, in 1852, buying a farm and settling down there. They continued their involvement in the abolitionist cause, writing books and contributing money to anti-slavery organizations, and got involved in the anti-death penalty movement.