Abstract
.As editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard in the early 1840s, Lydia Maria
Child was responsible for keeping the abolitionist movement in the United
States informed of relevant news. She also used her editorial position to
philosophize. Her column entitled “Letters from New York” is particularly
philosophical, including considerations of infinity, free will, time, nature, art,
and history. She especially turned to German philosophers and intellectuals
such as Kant, Schiller, Bettina von Arnim, Karoline von Günderrode, Jean Paul,
Herder, and Hegel in an attempt to guide her readers to a rejection of slavery
for the right philosophical reasons. I consider the influence of German
philosophy on three particular themes in her writings: a Romantic-Spinozistic
view of humans and nature; a Kantian conception of conscience; and a
Hegelian description of the philosophy of history.