Lot 60: Abolitionist Garrison to Activist Lydia M. Child

GARRISON, WILLIAM LLOYD. (1805-1879). American journalist and abolitionist. ALS. (“Wm. Lloyd Garrison”). 1p. 8vo. N.p. (Boston), August 30 (1858?). To abolitionist, women’s and Indian rights activist and novelist LYDIA MARIA CHILD, 1802-1880.

“Some of the ladies (all, indeed, with whom I have conversed) are extremely desirous of your presence at the meeting to be held on Friday next, at Mrs. May’s. They want your convictions, suggestions, and advice, especially as the withdrawal of Mrs. Chapman is almost like Hamlet out of the play, she hitherto having taken the entire management of the Festival upon her own shoulders. Do come, if you can, that a wise decision may be arrived at.

We want you to dine with us on that day, and remain with us over night, and as much longer as you can give us your pleasant company.

With warm regards to dear Mr. Child, I remain, your admiring friend...”

Garrison promoted the radical abolitionist cause through his famous antislavery journal, The Liberator, founded in 1831, and several years later, with his friend Reverend Samuel Joseph May, founded the American Anti-Slavery Society, the aim of which, as stated in its constitution, was to convince all Americans that “slaveholding is a heinous crime in the sight of God” and that “duty, safety, and best interests of all concerned, require its immediate abandonment without expatriation.” For the next 30 years, Garrison remained at the forefront of the abolition movement.

Child wrote a diverse array of literature including childrearing manuals, novels, short stories, non-fiction, and poems, including the popular work The Frugal Housewife and her famous Thanksgiving poem, “Over the River and Through the Wood.” She also founded and edited the first American monthly magazine for children, Juvenile Miscellany. Beginning in the 1830s, Child became involved in the abolition movement, and her 1833 book An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, was the first book-length, anti-slavery tract to be published in the United States and brought her a degree of renown. The work influenced such notable leaders as Unitarian theologian William Ellery Channing and American abolitionist and activist for American Indian and women’s rights Wendell Phillips.

Although initially reluctant to join a gender-segregated organization, Child was recruited to the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, and although she wrote to Lucretia Mott in 1839, “I never have entered very earnestly into the plan of female conventions and societies. They always seemed to me like half a pair of scissors,” she was an active member in the organization, even founding the Boston Anti-Slavery Bazaar in 1834. The fundraising event was so successful that it was widely imitated. However, in 1858, abolitionist Maria Weston Chapman (1806-1885), who had headed the bazaar since 1835 and edited its fundraising booklet The Liberty Bell, declared it out of fashion and unilaterally decided to replace the bazaar with the Anti-Slavery Subscription Anniversary. Her domineering personality and boundless energy prompted such nicknames as Captain Chapman, Joan of Arc, the Great Goddess, and Lady Macbeth. In our letter, Garrison invokes another Shakespeare play when referencing Chapman.

Chapman was a close associate of Garrison, editing The Liberator in his absence as well as serving on the editorial committee of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, the periodical of the American Anti-Slavery Society, the executive committee of which she was a member. Likewise, Child (and later her husband) edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard, for several years, until she ended her affiliation with the publication over its increasing promotion of violence as a tool to end slavery, a point of view which was somewhat tempered in her later years.

Our letter possibly refers to a meeting to be held at the home of Reverend Samuel Joseph May and his wife, Lucretia Flagge May (née Coffin, 1793-1865), who were active in both the abolitionist cause and the Underground Railroad in Syracuse. May was the brother of American reformer Abigail May Alcott and, as such, the uncle of American author Louisa May Alcott.

Neatly written on lined paper. Folded and in fine condition. Accompanied by an engraving of Garrison.