Lydia Maria Child will be the subject of the Kennebec Historical Society’s September program. Lydia Moland, author of “Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life,” will give the presentation. Contributed photo

AUGUSTA — The Kennebec Historical Society’s September presentation, “Lydia Maria Child on American Ideals and Democratic Engagement,” is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, at the South Parish Congregational Church, 9 Church St.

By 1830, Lydia Maria Child had established herself as something almost unheard of in the American 19th century: a beloved and self-sufficient female author. Best known today for the poem “Over the River and through the Wood,” Child had become famous at an early age for spunky self-help books and charming children’s stories.

But in 1833, Child shocked her readers by publishing a scathing book-length argument against slavery in the United States — a book so radical in its commitment to abolition that friends abandoned her, patrons ostracized her, and her book sales plummeted. Yet Child soon drew untold numbers to the abolitionist cause, becoming one of the foremost authors and activists of her generation.

Building on her book, “Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life,” philosopher Lydia Moland will use Child’s example to ask questions as pressing and personal in this time as they were in Child’s: What does it mean to change one’s life when the moral future of the country is at stake? How can ordinary citizens fight for justice?

KHS presenter Moland is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur professor of philosophy at Colby College. Her scholarship in German philosophy has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the American Academy in Berlin. Her work on Lydia Maria Child has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and on National Public Radio.

The presentation is free to the public, with donations accepted. The program will be preceded by a 5 p.m. potluck supper and at 6 p.m. by the society’s annual meeting and election of directors.

For details about the supper, contact Anne Cough at acough60@yahoo.com or 207-582-2823.

For more information about presentation call KHS Executive Director Scott Wood at 207-622-7718.