The work, however grew under her hands, till finally, becoming much interested in the design, she decided to publish, not only the words, but the music. She visited New York for this purpose in 1840, and the work appeared early in 1841.
She now used her pen almost incessantly. It is not wonderful that her thoughts ran principally upon the subject of affliction, nor that the scenes through which she had passed during her short sojourn at the West, should have formed the theme of her muse.
In the summer of 1841 she again visited New York for the purpose of publishing a volume of poems. This appeared under the title of “The Parted Family, and other Poems.” She undertook, also, at the request of her publishers, to prepare another volume similar in design to the “Southern Harp,” to be published under the title of the “Northern Harp.” Both of these publications succeeded well. They passed through several large editions, and in a pecuniary way were very profitable, more than twenty-five thousand copies having been sold.
Her next publication was a prose work, entitled “Charles Morton; or, the Young Patriot;” a tale of the American Revolution. This, also, was very successful. It was issued in the early part of the year 1843.
She next published two tales for seamen. The title of the first was “The Young Sailor,” and of the other, “Forecastle Tom.”
About this time she experienced a change in her religious views, which attracted considerable attention, and led to her next publication. She had been bred a Calvinist, but during the year 1844 she began to entertain doubts about the doctrine of the Trinity, and finally, to the grief of her revered parents, and numerous friends, early in the year 1845, she avowed herself a Unitarian.
The matter having become one of some notoriety, she felt called upon to publish a volume of “Letters to Relatives and Friends,” stating the process through which her mind had passed. This, by far the largest of her prose volumes, appeared in Boston, in the fall of 1845, and was republished in London. It went through several editions, and was finally stereotyped.
In 1847 she wrote several “Southern Sketches,” the first of which appeared in the “Union Magazine” for October of that year.
At this time another severe affliction befell her. This was the sudden death, within two or three weeks of each other, of both her parents, at Orangeburg, South Carolina.
On the 18th of May, 1848, she became united in marriage to her present husband, the Rev. Robert D. Shindler, a clergyman of the Episcopal Church. Her views on the subject of the Trinity have also experienced a change, or rather have reverted to their original condition, and she is now in communion with the church of her husband.
