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.

About the Author :
Established in Southcentral Pennsylvania as the visible presence of Lydia Hamilton Smith, telling her story in period costume. She shares Lydia's life and her many accomplishments for local school students and at historical events. She founded the Lydia Hamilton Smith Society and co-founded the African American Historical Society of Southcentral Pennsylvania. She is currently the President of the Christiana Historical Society. She has received awards from the NAACP and the YWCA, the Council for the Humanities, the Junior League of Lancaster, and the Lancaster Historical Society for her first-person interpretation of local African American historical women. Most recently, she received a Fellowship from the Lancaster County Historical Society, in addition to a Senior Fellowship from the USCTI. Mary Theresa (Terry) Webb, principal writer, holds a master's degree in education and a doctorate in family counseling. She founded and has been the director of Conservations Consultants in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and GOAL Project in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A former elementary teacher, she trained schoolteachers before leading mission teams to respond to requests for education in family issues around substance misuse preventionand treatment in Eastern Europe and Africa. She has developed curriculum for educators, faith communities, mental health professionals, and healing teams, and her numerous journal articles appear in scholarly and professional journals. A blog, as well as nonfiction and historical fiction books, can be accessed and ordered on her marytheresawebb.com website. Her historical fiction books for tweens include student and teacher activities for further learning about US history and social issues. She loves to sing and read. Sort by Pam Lazos, fellow writer/editor is an environmental lawyer; author of Oil and Water, an eco thriller about oil spills and green technology, of Six Sisters, a collection of novellas about family dysfunction, of Bad Pharma, a novel exploring life and death issues surrounding drug development, and of Into the Land of the Loud, a children's book; a former Editor-in-Chief for the Environmental Law and Technology Journal at Temple Law School; a ghostwriter; creator of the literary and eco blog www.greenlifebluewater.earth; an issues editor for the International Journal of Water Equity and Justice (University of Pennsylvania); on the Board of the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association; a sustaining member of the Junior League of Lancaster; and a co-director of Red Rose Reuses, a community-based grassroots organization, working to eliminate the use of single-use plastics in her community. She practices laughter daily.