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The Daily Beans

Introducing - Unsung History: Lydia Marie Child

The Daily Beans

MSW Media

News, Comedy, Daily News, Politics

4.85.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

With The Beans on vacation, we thought it would be a good opportunity to share some podcasts that you might not be familiar with. We hope you enjoy Unsung History as much as we do! If you like what you hear, please subscribe here: https://link.chtbl.com/unsung-history By 1833, Lydia Maria Child was a popular author, having published both fiction and nonfiction, including the wildly successful advice book The Frugal Housewife: Dedicated to those who are not ashamed of Economy. And she had been editing a beloved monthly periodical for children called Juvenile Miscellany for seven years. But her popularity crumbled precipitously when she published An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans, arguing for the immediate emancipation of enslaved people. Child never stopped writing or fighting for the causes she believed in, but she never again reached the literary heights to which she’d seemed poised to ascend. Joining me to help us learn more about Lydia Maria Child is Dr. Lydia Moland, Professor of Philosophy at Colby College and author of Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The poem mid-episode, read by Teddy, is “The New-England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day,” written by Lydia Maria Child and originally published in 1844 in Flowers for Children, Volume 2. The image is of Lydia Maria Child, from “Representative Women,” by L. Schamer, produced by Louis Prang Lithography Company, in 1870; the image is available courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution and is in the public domain. Additional sources: “Lydia Maria Child,” Poetry Foundation. “Lydia Maria Child,” David Ruggles Center for History and Education. “October 20, 1880: Lydia Maria Child Dies,” Mass Moments. “Lydia Maria Child 1802-1880,” From a talk titled, “Here are some of her accomplishments” by Jane Sciacca, Wayland Historical Society, October 2018. “Lydia Maria Child,” National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum. “William Lloyd Garrison,” National Park Service. “Lydia Maria Child Taught Americans to Make Do With Less,“ by Lydia Moland, Wall Street Journal, November 10, 2022. “Activists have always been frustrated at allies’ insistence on gradual change,” by Lydia Moland, Washington Post, March 28, 2022. “Books by Child, Lydia Maria,” Project Gutenberg “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself,” by Harriet A. Jacobs; edited by Lydia Maria Child.

Transcript

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0:00.0

M. The S. W. Media

0:10.2

Hello, daily beans listeners. I am Kelly Tari's Pollock, producer and host of Unsung History,

0:16.5

part of MSW Media. Unsung History looks at stories in US history that just haven't gotten enough

0:23.2

attention. As you might expect, that includes a lot of women's history. And this month,

0:29.6

during women's history month, all of my weekly episodes will be about women's history.

0:35.2

This episode today is about a 19th century abolitionist named Lydia Mariah Child.

0:41.8

It's possible you've never heard of Lydia Mariah Child, but I guarantee you've heard of her

0:46.4

most famous poem. You'll have to listen to the episode to find out what poem that is.

0:51.6

I hope you enjoy. Please subscribe so you can catch all of the women's history episodes this month,

0:57.3

and all of the stories all year round that I just can't wait to share with you.

1:01.3

Please reach out, follow me on social media, tell me which think of the episode I love hearing

1:06.0

feedback from listeners. This week, as we launch a series of episodes for women's history month,

1:13.4

we're discussing the life of abolitionist, Lydia Mariah Child.

1:18.6

Lydia Francis was born in Medford, Massachusetts on February 11, 1802. The youngest of seven children,

1:30.6

born to Converse and Susanna Francis, owners of a bakery that produced the famous Medford crackers.

1:39.6

Susanna died in 1814 when Lydia was just 12 years old, at which point she moved to Norwich Walk main,

1:50.2

to live with her sister Mary. When Lydia was 19, she left main to move in with her brother Converse,

1:59.5

a minister in watertown, Massachusetts, with whom she shared a love of reading.

2:06.1

Around that same time, she chose to be rebaptized, selecting the baptismal name, Mariah,

2:15.4

and from that point on, she asked to be referred to as Mariah.

2:20.4

Always a voracious reader, at the age of 22, Mariah published her first book, a novel about

2:30.8

interracial marriage between a white woman and a native American man. The novel was called Habamok,

...

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