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Letter from Lydia Maria Child to unknown recipient
Lydia Maria Child1880
National Women’s History Museum
Alexandria, VA, United States
Sentiment written and signed by Lydia Maria Child
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Details
- Title: Letter from Lydia Maria Child to unknown recipient
- Creator: Lydia Maria Child
- Date: 1880
- Location: United States
- Story: Lydia Maria Child was an ardent abolitionist who used her national reputation as an author and editor to demand rights for African Americans as well as women. She was a fierce social critic who saw herself as promoting a truly egalitarian society. Child’s 1824 novel <i>Hobomok</i> created a sensation through its exploration of interracial romance. Her heroine rebels against rigid Puritan ideology and racial bigotry by marrying an Indian and giving birth to his son. While modern critics admire her call for religious, feminist, and political reform, they are troubled by her writing’s racist assumptions about hierarchy and cultural superiority.
- Provenance: Gift of Jeanne and Robert Schramm
- Transcript:The highest civilization is proved, not so much by graceful politeness to superiors, as by sincere and uniform kindness and courtesy to all individuals, or races, whose advantages have been inferior to our own. L. Maria Child 1880Hide TranscriptShow Transcript
- Type: Ink on paper
- Dimensions: 8 x 5 in
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