Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

viii1 IVNTRODUCTI0N.
the front rank of American authorship. Her books
and her magazine had a large circulation, and iwere
affording her a comfortable income, at a time w-hen
the rewrards of authorship were uncertain and at the
best scanty.
-In 1828 she married David Lee Child, Esq., a
young and able lawyer, and took up her residence in
Boston. In 1831-32 both became deeply interested
in the subject of slavery, through the writings and
personal influence of William Lloyd Garrison. HTer
husband, a member of the MAI:ssachusetts lecislature
and editor of the "Massachusetts Journal," had, at
an earlier date, denounced the project of the dismemberinent of Mexico for the purpose of strengthenling
and extending A-mericitu sltvery. HXe was one of the
earliest members of the New Englland Anti-Slavery
Society, and his outspoken hostility to the peculiar
institution greatly and unfavorably affected his interests as a lawyer. In 18`32 he addressed a series of
able letters on slavery and the slave-trade to Edwardc
S. Abdy, a prominent English philanthropist. Il 183;3
he published in Philadelphia ten strongly written articles on the same subject. THe visited England and
Frrance in 18317, and while in Paris addressed an elaborate memoir to the Societe pour l'Abolition Id'sclavage, and a paper on the same saUbject to the editor
of the " Eclectic Review," in London. To his facts
and arguments John Quincy Adams was niuech indebted in the speeches which he delivered in Coagress on the Texas question.
In 18-33 the American Antti-Sravery Societv ywas
formed by a convention in Philadelphia. Its nuambers were small, and it was everywhere spoken againslSt.
It was at this time that Lydli MariaL Child startled