The book, published in 1854, features the titular character kidnapped from Pennsylvania, her skin forcibly dyed darker, and sold into slavery.
[2] Published under the pseudonym "Mary Langdon", the book immediately drew comparisons to Uncle Tom's Cabin, including from William Cullen Bryant, who theorized the novel was really by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Frederick Douglass' Paper heavily promoted the book and, in one review, noted it was "bound to electrify the reading public and to stir the spirits of all who have heads to think and hearts to feel".
[4] The book became popular enough in collective consciousness that abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner touted a formerly enslaved girl named Mary Botts as "another Ida May" to draw antislavery sentiment.
[5] Pike soon followed up the success of Ida May with two other books exploring racial prejudice: Caste (1856), about a white woman who discovers she is legally black, and Agnes (1858), about Native Americans.