Lydia Maria Child: 19th-Century Literary Superstar

One of my absolute FAVORITE things about our trip to Harper's Ferry today was a little paperback book I picked up in the bookshop there. It's called The American Frugal Housewife (apparently to distinguish it from the English book from the same time by a similar name) by Lydia Maria Child. Originally published in 1844, it's an amazingly dense collection of tips (from housekeeping to healthcare), recipes, and other advice for do-it-yourself household management. She talks about how to cook cheaply but healthfully, how to treat basic ailments (and avoid going to a doctor), make candles, polish furniture...etc etc...and her tips are all sensible, cheap, and even green. In other words, if she'd had a blog, I'd be flattered to think that it would maybe look a little something like ours?

However, possibly the most fascinating thing about this book is the author herself. I had never heard of Lydia Maria Child, but she was an abolitionist and women's rights advocate who nonetheless believed that the lot of women would not improve considerably until slavery was abolished. She wrote extensively, books and political articles, and apparently her interest in economical living was sparked because her husband was a "charming dreamer" of lawyer, given to charitable causes (who apparently also grew sugar beets) and made very little money. Sounds to me like they were living the Sullenbrand version of the American dream! She has other books on parenting, religion, abolition, Indian rights, women's rights, and one called The Family Nurse, which includes such good advice as "Never meddle with medicines, unless some disorder of the system renders them really necessary" (p.2). Amen, sister! And apparently, she also wrote the song "Over the River and Through the Woods," (who knew?!) along with a book called The Progress of Religious Ideas which was praised by theologians and a novel, Philothea, which none other than Edgar Allen Poe called "an honor to our country, and a signal triumph for our countrywomen." She also expresses some ideas that are incredibly applicable to our times, almost eerily so:

"Nations do not plunge at once into ruin--governments do not change suddenly--the causes which bring about the final blow, are scarcely perceptible in the beginning; but they increase in numbers and in power; they press harder and harder upon the energies and virtue of a people; and the last steps only are alarmingly hurried and irregular. A republic without industry, economy, and integrity, is Samson shorn of his locks" (p. 99)

"Perhaps there never was a time when the depressing effects of stagnation in business were so universally felt, all the world over, as they are now" (p. 108)

"It is wise to keep an exact account of all you expend--even of a paper of pins" (p. 4)

"If you are about to furnish a house, do not spend all your money, be it much or little. Do not let the beauty of this thing, and the cheapness of that, tempt you to buy unnecessary articles" (p. 5)

Really, really good stuff. And this is her lighter work. She's somebody who obviously has an amazing intellect and a wonderful grasp of economics, philosophy, religion, and civil rights. Of course, like many great women before her and since, despite her singular devotion to her country, American history has largely failed to remember her.