Abstract

lydia maria child was one of the best-known women intellectuals of the nineteenth century on the American scene, and yet her name is not often heard today.1 Although it might seem gratuitous to attempt to label a thinker—and, in some cases, not only unnecessary, but demeaning—there is ample reason to think that Child can be called a transcendentalist, as well as an early abolitionist and feminist. In any case, the independent and very forward-looking work of this woman thinker of her time, it can be argued, deserves further consideration and is not without philosophical import.Child’s name comes up now because there is renewed interest in a number of circles in the efforts of abolitionists, both black..