Mary Hall Adams

Mary Hall Adams edited and wrote nineteenth-century moral and religious literature for young readers. Born Mary Hall Barrett in 1816, her publications used the name Mrs. M. H. Adams and assembled prose and verse intended to connect everyday conduct with Christian teaching. Small Means and Great Ends appeared in 1851 as an edited collection of stories, poems, and reflective pieces. Its contents include the title story, “Mary Ellen,” “The Young Soldier,” “The Stolen Children,” and pieces on compassion, self-command, faith, poverty, and family life. The volume addresses children directly and repeatedly argues that limited resources do not prevent useful or generous action. Adams served as the volume's editor, a role important to understanding the book's many voices and forms. Small Means and Great Ends is therefore best read as a curated juvenile miscellany rather than a single continuous narrative, showing how Adams shaped varied contributions into a coherent program of moral instruction.