A Christmas Song and Religious Activism by Lydia Maria Child

In recent articles, we’ve covered 1800s politics, racism, and cultural events. Today, we venture into religion, who Lydia Maria Child was, and what her impact was on society.

Born to a strict Calvinist father, Child slept with a bible under her pillow when she was young. However, although she joined the Unitarians in 1820, as an adult she was not active in that, or any other, church.

Ms. Child did not fit easily into religious categories. She was born in Medford, Massachusetts, the daughter of a baker, and she rejected her parents’ Calvinism as an adolescent. The older brother who educated her, Convers Francis, became a Unitarian minister, but she found Unitarianism cold and intellectual. She was attracted to Swedenborgian mysticism but felt that it fed her imagination more than her heart or her intellect.

Some of her publications include Flowers for Children (1844–47), Fact and Fiction (1846), The Freedmen’s Book (1865), and An Appeal for the Indians (1868). Child’s other work included popular volumes of advice for women, such as The Frugal Housewife (1829).

Ms. Child was a voice for many who felt they hadn’t been recognized for many years. When she…