Lydia Child was an American abolitionist, women’s rights activist, opponent of American expansionism, and Indian rights activist. She is most remembered for her poem Over the River and Through the Woods. Lydia Child believed that interracial marriage would help the races come together with understanding and sympathy. She felt her novel could show historical wrongs in the hope of changing the state of racial relations. This social commentary will elicit discussions on 19th century racial relations as well as the current state of racial relations.