| Eliza Lee Cabot Follen | |
| Birth Name: | Eliza Lee Cabot |
| Birth Date: | August 15, 1787 |
| Birth Place: | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Unitarian writer, editor, abolitionist |
| Language: | English |
| Children: | Charles Christopher Follen (son) |
| Relatives: | Cabot family |
Eliza Lee Cabot Follen (August 15, 1787January 26, 1860) was an American writer, editor, and abolitionist. In her early life, she contributed various pieces of prose and poetry to papers and magazines. In 1828, she married Prof. Charles Follen, who died on board the Lexington in 1840. During her married life, she published a variety of popular and useful books, all of which were characterized by her Christian piety. Among the works she gave to the press are, Selections from Fénelon, The Well-spent Hour, Words of Truth, The Sceptic, Married Life, Little Songs, Poems, Life of Charles Follen, Twilight Stories, Second Series of Little Songs, as well as a compilation of Home Dramas, and German Fairy Tales. Holding an interest in the religious instruction of the young, she edited, in 1829, the Christian Teacher's Manual, and, from 1843 to 1850, the Child's Friend. She died in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1860.
Eliza Lee Cabot was born in Boston, August 15, 1787, the fifth of thirteen children in the prominent Cabot family of that city. She was the daughter of Samuel Cabot, and Sarah Barrett Cabot.
She was well-educated.
When Samuel died in 1819, ten years after her mother had died, Eliza Cabot and her two sisters established a household, and she developed a large circle of friends with literary and religious interests. Her friends included William Ellery Channing and Henry Ware. Within this circle, she co-founded a Sunday school affiliated with the Federal Street Church.
Catharine Sedgwick introduced her to the educator Charles Follen. Nine years her junior, he initially became Eliza Cabot's protégé. In 1828, after his betrothed in Germany declined to emigrate to the United States, Eliza and Charles married.[1] He perished on board the Lexington, which was burnt on Long Island Sound, January 13, 1840.
After Charles's death, Follen educated their only son, Charles Christopher (born 1830), whom, with other pupils, she fitted for Harvard University. An intimate friend of Channing, she was a zealous opponent of slavery.
Follen published the writings of François Fénelon, and of her husband. Her writings also included: The Skeptic (1835), Sketches of Married Life (1838), and From Little Songs, for Little Boys and Girls (Boston: Whittemore, Niles and Hall; Milwaukie: A. Whittemore & Co., 1856). She edited two Sunday school publications,[2] the Christian Teacher's Manual (1828–1830) and the Child's Friend (1843–1850).
She was a voluminous writer. Her poems were first published at Boston (Crosby & Co.), 1839, and while she was in England, she issued another volume for children's use, entitled The Lark and the Linnet, in 1854. Both volumes also contain some translations from the German, and versions of a few Psalms. Her best known hymns are:
Follen died at Brookline, Massachusetts, January 26, 1860.