From the Heart of Lydia
Was Lydia's Big Question answered? In this historical fiction story, young Lydia Hamilton Smith wondered who her father was. Born during the early 1800s in a Gettysburg tavern to a single mother, formerly enslaved, Lydia had to work as a servant just like her mother. The story starts on her fifth birthday. Both she and her mother worked for Mrs. Hamilton, a descendant of the tavern's founders and the owner of the Russell Tavern. She was demanding, yet her husband was not. When Lydia's mother moved out of the tavern, they adopted baby Jane, whose mother died after escaping toward freedom. Lydia learned about freedom seekers, property management, and bookkeeping. Without access to formal education, she adjusted, absorbed, and accommodated. Teenage Lydia found faith and made new friends, going with them to listen to a banjo player named Jacob Smith. The two married and had two sons, then moved to Harrisburg, where Jacob led a band, and they purchased property. Yet, Smith's drinking and gambling forced Lydia to get a job to pay the rent, and they separated. Soon after, Lydia accepted an offer from Thaddeus Stevens to be his housekeeper after he had moved to Lancaster. Lydia then ran Mr. Stevens' household, raising his two nephews along with her two boys. She had to learn new skills. In addition to managing his household, she oversaw his schedule to ensure the household ran smoothly. As a free woman at a time when blacks lacked basic rights - even those who were three-fourths white and worked for prominent people -she managed to overcome and thrive.
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