biography
| name: |
Child, Lydia Maria
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née Francis
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| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1802–80)
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| biography:
| Abolitionist and writer, born in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. After teaching for a time she began writing fiction (1824) and started a children's educational periodical, the Juvenile Miscellany. Popular domestic advice books followed, notably The Frugal Housewife (1829), and she also wrote biographical essays about women. After her marriage to attorney David Lee Child (1828), she wrote a classic anti-slavery tract (1833) that offended many and depressed sales of her other books. She took part in abolitionist activities and was editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard (1840–4). After a hiatus devoted to other writing, including popular newspaper columns on arts and society, she returned to her anti-slavery polemics shortly before the Civil War. She also supported women's rights and civil service reform. |
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