Our Young Folks - An Ethical Guide for Children

Our Young Folks - An Ethical Guide for Children

Our Young Folks was a children’s magazine that ran from 1865 until 1873. Although the magazine didn’t last long, it was widely read by children across the country and even abroad, and circulation eventually exceeded 75,000 (Kelly 345). The magazine began publication just four months before the end of the Civil War, and during this time of upheaval Our Young Folks was an ethical guide for the nation’s children. Nearly every story offers the reader a moral, and children were continually urged to put others before themselves.

Selfless Models

One of the ways Our Young Folks gave its readers moral instructions was by setting examples. The magazine was packed with stories of selfless children who lived and died for others. Such characters were held up as models for how the young readers of the magazine should behave.

One of these selfless stories is “My Heroine,” which is a poem about a young girl who dies while protecting her baby. Stanzas six and seven clearly outline the child’s heroism:

Her mother gave the piteous tale:

“How that child’s courage did not fail,

Or else poor baby-” She stopped, pale,

And shed tears without number;

Then told how at the fireside warm,

Lizzie, with baby on her arm,

Slipped- threw him from her- safe from harm,

Then fell- here in her slumber.

Lizzie shrieked, “Take him!” and uptossed

Her poor burnt hands, and seemed half lost,

Until a smile her features crossed,

As sweet as angels’ may be.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said, in feeble tone,