Lydia Maria Child: Correspondence with Mrs. Mason on John Brown

Lydia Maria Child offered solace and comfort to the imprisoned John Brown, who was arrested and jailed for his role in the raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859. She received a letter of thanks from Brown, which was published in a New York newspaper. Subsequently, Child and Margaretta Mason, the wife of James M. Mason, a Virginia politician and proponent of slavery, entered into a correspondence. In her vituperative letter, Mason relied on quotes from the Bible to justify slavery. Child’s forceful response draws attention to pertinent quotes from the Bible that suggest the opposite and cites instances of cruelty to slaves to counter Mason’s assertion that slaves are generally well treated. The correspondence was published as a pamphlet in 1860 under the title Correspondence between Lydia Maria Child and Gov. Wise and Mrs. Mason of Virginia.