Lydia Maria Child Dies
On this day in 1880, Lydia Maria Child, whom abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison called "the first woman in the Republic," was buried in Wayland. A successful novelist and magazine editor and the author of a widely read guide to household economy, she sacrificed her career by taking a highly unpopular stand against slavery. Her anti-slavery work enraged most of the nation and cost Child dearly. She could no longer sell her books or publish her writings, and she lost her job at a children's magazine. But Child continued to argue eloquently and courageously against injustice of all kinds. The eulogist at her funeral declared that Lydia Maria Child was "ready to die for a principle and starve for an idea. . . ."
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