Mary Hayden Pike facts for kids
Mary Hayden Pike (born Mary Hayden Green) was an American author who lived from 1824 to 1908. She also wrote books using the pen names Mary Langdon and Sydney A. Story, Jr.
About Mary Hayden Pike
Mary Hayden Green was born in Eastport, Maine. She grew up there with her parents, Elijah Dix Green and Hannah Claflin Hayden. She went to school in Calais, Maine, and later graduated from the Charlestown Female Seminary in 1843. When she was 12 years old, she had a religious experience and was baptized. In 1846, she married Frederick A. Pike, who later became a member of the United States Congress.
Her Famous Books
Mary Hayden Pike is best known for her novel Ida May, which was published in 1854. This book was a powerful story against slavery. It tells the tale of a young girl named Ida May who is kidnapped from Pennsylvania. Her skin is then made to look darker, and she is sold into slavery.
Pike published Ida May under the pen name "Mary Langdon." The book quickly became very popular and was often compared to another famous anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Some people, like the writer William Cullen Bryant, even wondered if Ida May was secretly written by Uncle Tom's Cabin author, Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Ida May sold 60,000 copies in just its first two years! A newspaper called Frederick Douglass' Paper, which was run by the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass, strongly promoted the book. They wrote that it would "electrify the reading public" and "stir the spirits of all who have heads to think and hearts to feel." The book was so well-known that an anti-slavery senator named Charles Sumner even referred to a formerly enslaved girl, Mary Mildred Williams, as "another Ida May" to help gather support against slavery.
After the success of Ida May, Pike wrote two more books that explored unfair treatment based on race. These were Caste (1856), which was about a white woman who finds out she is legally considered Black, and Agnes (1858), which focused on Native Americans.
Works
- Ida May: a Story of Things Actual and Possible, 1854 (written under the pseudonym Mary Langdon)
- Caste: A Story of Republican Equality, 1856 (written under the pseudonym Sydney A. Story, Jr.)
- Agnes, 1858
See also
