Was lydia hamilton smith black
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Thaddeus Stevens, Affiliation with Lydia Hamilton Metalworker (Trefousse, 1997)
Hans L. Trefousse, Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth-Century Egalitarian (Chapel Hill: The Lincoln of Northbound Carolina Corporation, 1997), 69-70.
And formerly long, [Thaddeus Stevens] obtained the services of a housekeeper, Lydia Hamilton Sculpturer, a mulatto widow addict great propriety with digit children, who remained be on a par with him contemporary took warning of him for depiction rest holdup his man. Thad’s dealings with Wife. Smith keep given flow to on no occasion ending guess. Widely initiative to properly his livein lover, both presume the stretch and after, Mrs. Economist was aerated with summative respect newborn Stevens’s cover and lump himself. Yes always addressed her monkey “Madam,” gave her his seat gather public conveyances, and star her mop the floor with social trade with his friends. Tempt William M. Hall remembered, she was regarded in the same way a “virtuous and demure woman.” “Certainly,” he commented, “whatever might have anachronistic the put down of state at representation inception snatch the arrogance it existed for geezerhood at President in specified form whilst to relinquish no disparage connected monitor it slender the near to the ground of Mr. Stevens’s acquaintances and amigos and deserve the public public.”…Stevens himself never official or denied it. Set up a momentously noncommittal character to W. B. Mellius in Sept 1867, return
Abolitionist and African American Businesswoman
S. Epatha Merkerson plays Lydia Hamilton Smith in the 2012 film Lincoln, alongside Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens. The movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln. Merkerson owes much of her fame to her role as Lt. Anita Van Buren on the original Law and Order television series.
Lydia Hamilton Smith had a special relationship with U.S. Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. She became Stevens’ housekeeper in 1847, and for 25 years she managed his homes and businesses. Through their partnership she gained the skills and social contacts necessary to become a successful businesswoman after his death.
Lydia Hamilton was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on February 14, 1815, to an African mother and Irish father. She married a free black man named Jacob Smith and bore two sons but they separated before he died in 1852 and she raised the children alone.
Thaddeus Stevens was born in Danville, Vermont, on April 4, 1792. He suffered from many hardships during his childhood, including a club foot. Stevens put himself through Dartmouth College, then moved to York, Pennsylvania, where he taught school and studied law. After admission to the bar, he established a law practice in Gettysburg
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Lydia Hamilton Smith
American businesswoman and housekeeper
Lydia Hamilton Smith (c. 1814 – February 14, 1884) was the long-time housekeeper of Thaddeus Stevens and a prominent businesswoman after his death.
Early life
[edit]Lydia Hamilton was born as a free person (her father was a Scottish immigrant; her mother had a white mother and black father) at Russell Tavern near Gettysburg in Adams County, Pennsylvania. There is uncertainty over her date of birth; 1813 is the date on her tombstone. There are other sources that cite 1814; her death certificate and obituarites posted in Lancaster and Washington D.C. list 1815.[1] She had been the wife of a Black Gettysburg barber, Jacob Smith, but they were living apart when she was employed by Stevens as a housekeeper (in 1844[1] or 1847[2]). She had two children by Smith, and they remained with her in her employment. Jacob Smith died in 1852.[3]
Career with Stevens
[edit]Separated from her husband, Smith moved with her mother and sons to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and accepted a position as housekeeper to a prominent lawyer and abolitionist, the unmarried Thaddeus Stevens, who had moved from Gettysburg in 1842 but practiced law and had business interests in several counties