Lydia Maria Child: The Quest for Racial Justice (Oxford Portraits) - Hardcover

Kenschaft, Lori

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195132572 ISBN 13: 9780195132571

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2002

Synopsis

Lydia Maria Child presents the life of the dynamic nineteenth-century writer who, through her pen and at great personal cost to her literary career, spoke out for those silenced in society -- slaves, Native Americans, women, and the poor. At the dawn of the 1830s, Lydia Maria Child was a celebrated author, known for her popular domestic handbook, The Frugal Housewife, and Hobomok, a novel of American Indian life. In 1833, with the publication of her controversial Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans, Child's life changed dramatically from literary figure to antislavery activist. Her Appeal helped ignite the abolitionist movement, and several antislavery leaders -- including Wendell Phillips and Charles Sumner -- credited it with converting them to the cause. An inspirational look at an extraordinary woman, Lydia Maria Child is the story of how one person fought for the basic human right of freedom -- for all.

Oxford Portraits are informative and insightful biographies of people whose lives shaped their times and continue to influence ours. Based on the most recent scholarship, they draw heavily on primary sources, including writings by and about their subjects. Each book is illustrated with a wealth of photographs, documents, memorabilia, framing the personality and achievements of its subject against the backdrop of history.

About this title

About the Author

Lori Kenschaft is an American historian with a special interest in the history of social change. She has taught at Boston University and is currently teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She earned her Ph.D in American Studies at Boston University.

Reviews

Grade 7 Up-A profile of the remarkable 19th-century author and abolitionist. Child overcame both societal and family expectations to become a successful and influential writer, and was the first woman to edit a children's magazine, pen a "domestic manual" for women with limited incomes, and write a regular newspaper column about urban life. Kenschaft explains how Child became increasingly aware of the evils of slavery and discrimination, and sacrificed her commercial success to publish treatises calling for abolition of slavery in the South and better treatment of the free blacks in the North. After the Civil War, she supported women's and Native American rights. Although the author points out her subject's weaknesses, she is admiring of Child's efforts to overcome a difficult marriage and poverty to fight for her beliefs. Plenty of background material is given about slavery, the Civil War, and the societal strictures under which women of the day labored. Excerpts from Child's work are provided in sidebars. Average-quality, black-and-white illustrations and photos supplement the text. This well-done book will give young people an opportunity to learn more about one woman and the ideals for which she stood.
Mary Mueller, Rolla Junior High School, MO
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 6-10. This addition to the Oxford Portraits series introduces a woman who is little known but immensely interesting for several reasons. Child, who was encouraged by her brother to become a reader, grew up to be an author, writing everything from domestic handbooks to novels. She laid her success on the line in 1833 when she published Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans. Despite the fact that her call against slavery galvanized the nascent abolition movement, her literary career was all but destroyed. In addition to working against slavery and as a proponent of women's rights, Child turned her attention to a neglected cause, the rights of Native Americans. Saying that she had "the heart of a man imprisoned within a woman's destiny," Child, who died in 1880, lived to see the end of slavery; she also gained success as a writer, an unusual achievement for the time. Though this will probably be used mostly for reports, Kenschaft's well-written text, helped by black-and-white photographs and pictures and cartoons of the period, may entice students to read on; it captures both a woman and her times. Linda Perkins
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195132572
• ISBN 13: 9780195132571
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128