Lydia Maria Child

Born in 1802 in Massachusetts, Lydia Maria Child was an American writer and journalist, and she was widely known as a social reformer. In 1833 she authored An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, which was the first anti-slavery work published in the United States. Besides her abolitionist reform, Child was also an activist for women's rights and Indian rights. She wrote the Thanksgiving poem "Over the River and Through the Wood", which is still recited today, as well as the works Hobomok: A Tale of Early Times, The Mother's Book, and An Appeal for the Indians. Child died in 1880 at the age of 78.