Editing Lydia Maria Child (section)

===Native American rights work===
[[File:Hobomok 1824.jpg|thumb|Title page of ''[[Hobomok]]'', 1824]]
Child published her first novel, the historical romance ''[[Hobomok, A Tale of Early Times]]'', anonymously under the gender-neutral pseudonym "an American". The plot centers on the [[interracial marriage]] between a white woman and a Native American man, who have a son together. The heroine later remarries, reintegrating herself and her child into Puritan society. The issue of [[miscegenation]] caused a scandal in the literary community and the book was not a critical success.<ref>Samuels, Shirley, ''The Culture of Sentiment: Race, Gender and Sentimentality in Nineteenth-Century America'', 1992: 59.</ref>

During the 1860s, Child wrote pamphlets on Native American rights. The most prominent, ''An Appeal for the Indians'' (1868), called upon government officials, as well as religious leaders, to bring justice to American Indians. Her presentation sparked [[Peter Cooper]]'s interest in Indian issues. It contributed to the founding of the U.S. [[Board of Indian Commissioners]] and the subsequent Peace Policy in the administration of [[Ulysses S. Grant]].