Hays had received support and encouragement from William Charles Macready and George Henry Lewes to translate Sand's novels into English.

Both wrote to Sand encouraging the arrangement and a friend of Hays, chaplain Edmund Larken provided funding for the enterprise.

[6] Olive Class reported that "Sand was unsettled by the superficial display of feminist rebellion exhibited by her as yet still unmarried disciple and characterized her as 'a prude without modesty.

In attempting to tone down Sand's ideas, the translated books were "stripped it of its power", according to Giuseppe Mazzini.

The translations were "a smuggler's attempt to conceal the real nature of his infamous cargo," reported the Quarterly Review".

[16] In 1840 she, her sister Matilda, and her father attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London[17] although she would not have been permitted to speak as the women were not regarded as full delegates.

[18] Her family and friends, including Mazzini and Sand, opposed the match because they felt he was beneath her in intellect and he had few job prospects.

[22] The Ashurst family suffered dearly from her death and the radical movement lost an important advocate.