Lydia Maria Francis Child (American National Biography)

Child continued to demand equal treatment for blacks, and so in 1861 she willingly edited former slave Harriet Jacobs's novel Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. She followed this in 1865 with The Freedmen's Book, a collection of short poems, biographical sketches, and essays created with the hope of inculcating pride in newly freed blacks. Aspirations of the World: A Chain of Opals, the final anthology of her work, was published in 1878, two years before her death in Wayland.

Although best known for her antislavery writings, Child evinced an interest in all areas of social reform. Throughout her long career she commented on such issues as Indian rights, equal rights for women, educational reform, and religious toleration. She sacrificed a burgeoning national career in the 1830s by remaining true to her own conscience and becoming one of the first Americans to speak out against the institution of slavery.