Published in Boston in 1833, Lydia Maria Child's Appeal provided the abolitionist movement with its first full-scale analysis of race and slavery. Indeed, so comprehensive was its scope, surveying the institution from historical, political, economic, legal, racial, and moral perspectives, that no other antislavery writer ever attempted to duplicate Child's achievement. The Appeal not only denounced slavery in the South but condemned racial prejudice in the free North and refuted racist ideology as a whole.

Child's treatise anticipated twentieth-century inquiries into the African origins of European and American culture as well as current arguments against school and job discrimination based on race.

This new edition--the first oriented toward the classroom--is enhanced by Carolyn L. Karcher's illuminating introduction. Included is a chronology of Child's life and a list of books for further reading.

Professor of English, American studies, and women's studies at Temple University, Carolyn L. Karcher is author of The First Woman in the Republic: A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child and editor of Hobomok and Other Writings on Indians by Lydia Maria Child.

"The Appeal was one of the most important early manifestoes of the militant phase of Garrisonian abolitionism. It is also an important event in the history of feminism, because it helped launch women into the public sphere. Carolyn Karcher is the ideal scholar to write the introduction."—James M. McPherson, Princeton University

"The Appeal is literature of high quality and stands as a classic of American reform. Child can be considered the preeminent female abolitionist, and her work would be ideally suited for courses in women's history, nineteenth-century social and intellectual history, the history of reform, and, of course, antislavery."—David Brion Davis, Yale University

"Child's rising reputation is largely due to Carolyn Karcher's fine work on her. There is no one better qualified to introduce Child's book."—Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Amherst College