Lydia Maria Child (1802 –1880) was many things, but always an activist. She was deeply involved in many causes, including abolition, women’s rights, indigenous rights, and opposing American expansionism. Writer by trade, she was the editor of The National Anti-Slavery Standard, and she wrote novels, domestic manuals, edited a children’s magazine, and much more. She also was a philanthropist and assisted many causes, artists and musicians financially.

In this collection of letters to her mother from 1771-3, Anna Green Winslow sheds light on daily life of the wealthy in the Boston area during the beginnings of the American Revolution. The collection was edited by Alice Morse Earle for this publication.