Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life

A Zoom Presentation by Professor Lydia Moland sponsored by Historic Northampton and the David Ruggles Center. (Event Website)

When the prominent abolitionist Lydia Maria Child and her husband moved to Northampton in 1838, it was with an ambitious goal: to grow sugar beets to undermine the plantation sugar trade. Sugar beets had never been grown in the U.S. before, but abolitionists like Child (1802-1880) were determined to fight slavery in every way they could. 
Once in Northampton, Child attempted to help emancipate an enslaved woman who had been brought North by vacationing Southerners. She also sent reports to Boston abolitionists “outing” Northampton residents who supported the slave trade. Ultimately, the Childs’ beet experiment in Florence failed.

But Lydia Maria Child’s time in Northampton was formative for her activism and laid the groundwork for more abolitionist work. Child’s own philosophical thinking, moral courage, and extensive writing made her one of the most important voices among white Americans fighting to end slavery.

Lydia Moland will discuss her new biography of Child, entitled Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life, (University of Chicago Press) and suggest lessons from Child’s Northampton activism that are relevant today.

Register for the Zoom link.
Sliding scale admission: $5-25.

For more information, click here