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Jane Dunbar Chaplin

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Jane Dunbar Chaplin
BornFebruary 11, 1819 Edit this on Wikidata
Scotland Edit this on Wikidata
DiedApril 17, 1884 Edit this on Wikidata (aged 65)
Boston Edit this on Wikidata
OccupationWriter Edit this on Wikidata
Spouse(s)Jeremiah Chaplin Edit this on Wikidata
ChildrenChristine Chaplin Brush Edit this on Wikidata

Jane Dunbar Chaplin (February 11, 1819 – April 17, 1884)[1][2] was an American novelist and abolitionist.

Jane Dunbar was born on February 11, 1819 in Scotland, the daughter of Duncan Dunbar, a Baptist minister, and Christine Fletcher Dunbar. The family emigrated to New York City in 1821. In 1841 she married Jeremiah Chaplin, a Baptist minister and son of Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin the first president of Colby College.

Many of Chaplin's works were religiously-oriented works for children, published by the American Tract Society. Her 1853 novel The Convent and the Manse, published under the pseudonym "Hyla", was an anti-Catholic novel which purported (like numerous similar fictional works at the time) to expose the misdeeds of Catholic nuns.[3] Her Gems of the Bog: A Tale of Irish Peasantry (1869) traces the lives of the Sheenan family through various trails until their emigration to America.[1] Abolitionism was a feature of several of Chaplin's works. Her Black and white; Or, the heart, not the face (1863) was a "pseudo slave narrative" about a fictional woman named Juno Washington.[4] Her Out of the Wilderness (1870) follows African-Americans Zeke and Weza as they migrate to New England.[1] With her husband, she wrote a biography of abolitionist Charles Sumner, published in 1874.[2]

Jane Dunbar Chaplin died on 17 April 1884 in Boston.[2]

Partial bibliography

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  • The Convent and the Manse (John P. Jewett, 1853) as "Hyla"
  • Songs for my children (American Tract Society, 1861)
  • Fire-Light Stories (American Tract Society, 1862)
  • Black and white; Or, the heart, not the face (American Tract Society, 1863)
  • Gems of the Bog: A Tale of Irish Peasantry (1869)
  • Out of the Wilderness (H.A. Young & Co., 1870)
  • The Life of Charles Sumner (D. Lothrop & co, 1874) with Jeremiah Chaplin

References

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  1. ^ a b c Kavo, Rose F. (1979–1994). American women writers : a critical reference guide from colonial times to the present. Lina Mainiero, Cairns Collection of American Women Writers. New York: Ungar. ISBN 0-8044-3151-5. OCLC 5103380.
  2. ^ a b c Homans, James E. (James Edward) (1918). Cyclopaedia of American biography. Cyclopedia Publishing Company. p. 616.
  3. ^ Boylan, Anne M. (2002). The origins of women's activism : New York and Boston, 1797–1840. Internet Archive. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press. p. 285. ISBN 978-0-8078-2730-7.
  4. ^ Shafer, Peter William. "The Heart, Not the Face: Race, Religion and Righteousness in a Civil War Era Children's Tale" (PDF) – via Religious Education Association. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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