Lydia Marie Childs was one of the most influential abolitionists in the 19th century. Like Parker, she came from a Calvinist style Christian home in Massachusetts. Unlike Parker, Childs wandered away from the church before rejoining the Unitarians in 1867 when they had founded the Religious Free Association. That such an association was a spiritual home for Childs is evident from her book Aspirations of the World, which is a collection of wisdom sayings from various religions from around the world.
Childs’ first book was An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans, published in 1833. While this book was a piece of abolitionist propaganda, it was very well researched propaganda. Childs was a serious thinker, being both a regular attendee at Margaret Fuller’s circles and a serious reader. In her book The Mirror of Classicism, Caroline Winterer (2006: 170 n.6) lists the books on classical topics that informed Childs’ research.
In the Appeal, Childs explicitly contrasts the slavery of America with that of Greece and Rome.
Modern slavery, indeed, in all its particulars, is more odious than the ancient; and it is worthy of remark that the condition of slaves has always been worse just in proportion to the freedom enjoyed by their masters. In Greece, none were so proud of liberty as the Spartans; and they were a proverb among the neighboring States for their severity to slaves. The slave code of the Roman republic was rigid and tyrannical in the extreme; and cruelties became so common and excessive, that the emperors, in the latter days of Roman power, were obliged to enact laws to restrain them. In the modern world, England and America are the most conspicuous for enlightened views of freedom, and bold vindication of the equal rights of man; yet in these two countries slave laws have been framed as bad as they were in Pagan, iron-hearted Rome; and the customs are in some respects more oppressive;--modern slavery unquestionably wears its very worst aspect in the Colonies of England and the United States of North America. (From Gutenberg).
Childs does some interesting things with her description of Rome. First, she treats the Republic and the Empire as opposites viz. slavery. She insists that under the Republic, slave-owners had near unlimited authority, which they then abused. When Rome was later ruled by emperors, they enacted laws to check these abuses. What Childs ends up doing is constructing a narrative of moral progress in Rome. This idea of moral progress connects to her other idea that the spread of Christianity was essential to the overthrow of Roman slavery. In the following passage, she quotes from an unnamed source (that is, a source I haven’t had the time to identify yet):
In Rome, the introduction of "Christianity abolished slavery; the idea of exclusive property in our fellow-men was too obviously at variance with its holy precepts; and its professors, in the sincerity of their hearts, made a formal surrender of such claims. In various ancient instruments of emancipation, the masters begin by declaring, that, 'for the love of God and Jesus Christ, for the easing of their consciences, and the safety of their souls,' they set their bondmen free." (From Gutenberg).
The connection of Christianity to the dissolution of Roman slavery was a powerful idea in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, however, it has fallen out of favor.
Childs’ first book was An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans, published in 1833. While this book was a piece of abolitionist propaganda, it was very well researched propaganda. Childs was a serious thinker, being both a regular attendee at Margaret Fuller’s circles and a serious reader. In her book The Mirror of Classicism, Caroline Winterer (2006: 170 n.6) lists the books on classical topics that informed Childs’ research.
In the Appeal, Childs explicitly contrasts the slavery of America with that of Greece and Rome.
Modern slavery, indeed, in all its particulars, is more odious than the ancient; and it is worthy of remark that the condition of slaves has always been worse just in proportion to the freedom enjoyed by their masters. In Greece, none were so proud of liberty as the Spartans; and they were a proverb among the neighboring States for their severity to slaves. The slave code of the Roman republic was rigid and tyrannical in the extreme; and cruelties became so common and excessive, that the emperors, in the latter days of Roman power, were obliged to enact laws to restrain them. In the modern world, England and America are the most conspicuous for enlightened views of freedom, and bold vindication of the equal rights of man; yet in these two countries slave laws have been framed as bad as they were in Pagan, iron-hearted Rome; and the customs are in some respects more oppressive;--modern slavery unquestionably wears its very worst aspect in the Colonies of England and the United States of North America. (From Gutenberg).
Childs does some interesting things with her description of Rome. First, she treats the Republic and the Empire as opposites viz. slavery. She insists that under the Republic, slave-owners had near unlimited authority, which they then abused. When Rome was later ruled by emperors, they enacted laws to check these abuses. What Childs ends up doing is constructing a narrative of moral progress in Rome. This idea of moral progress connects to her other idea that the spread of Christianity was essential to the overthrow of Roman slavery. In the following passage, she quotes from an unnamed source (that is, a source I haven’t had the time to identify yet):
In Rome, the introduction of "Christianity abolished slavery; the idea of exclusive property in our fellow-men was too obviously at variance with its holy precepts; and its professors, in the sincerity of their hearts, made a formal surrender of such claims. In various ancient instruments of emancipation, the masters begin by declaring, that, 'for the love of God and Jesus Christ, for the easing of their consciences, and the safety of their souls,' they set their bondmen free." (From Gutenberg).
The connection of Christianity to the dissolution of Roman slavery was a powerful idea in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, however, it has fallen out of favor.