Lydia Hamilton Smith
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Lydia Hamilton Smith
Lydia Hamilton Smith ( – February 14, 1884) was the long-time housekeeper of Thaddeus Stevens and a prominent businesswoman after his death. Early life 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. 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 or 1847). She had two children by Smith, and they remained with her in her employment. Jacob Smith died in 1852. Career with Stevens Separated from her husband, Smith moved with her mother and sons to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and accepted a position as housekeeper to a prominent lawyer an ...
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Battle Of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg () was a three-day battle in the American Civil War, which was fought between the Union and Confederate armies between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle, won by the Union, is widely considered the Civil War's turning point, leading to an ultimate victory of the Union and the preservation of the nation. The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of both the Civil War and of any battle in American military history, claiming over 50,000 combined casualties. Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, halting Lee's invasion of the North and forcing his retreat.A prior attempt by Lee to invade the north culminated in the Battle of Antietam and 23,000 casualties, the most of any single day Civil War.Rawley, p. 147; Sauers, p. 827; Gallagher, ''Lee and His Army'', p. 83; McPherson, p. 665; Eicher, p. 550. Gal ...
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Underground Railroad People
Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * Buenos Aires Underground, a rapid transit system * London Underground, a rapid transit system * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground (Stoke concert venue), a club/music venue based in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent * Underground (Manhattan), a music club (1980—1989) in Manhattan * Underground Atlanta, a shopping and entertainment district in the Five Points neighborhood of downtown Atlanta, Georgia * Underground City, Montreal * Underground city, a series of linked subterranean spaces * Underground living, modes of living below the ground's surface Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Underground'' (1928 film), a drama by Anthony Asquith * ''Underground'' (1941 film), a war drama by Vincent Sherman * ''Underground'' (1970 film), a war drama starring Robert Goulet * ...
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American Abolitionists
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label that was previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports team ...
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African-American Abolitionists
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. African Americans constitute the second largest ethno-racial group in the U.S. after White Americans. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States. In 2023, an estimated 48.3 million people self-identified as Black, making up 14.4% of the country’s population. This marks a 33% increase since 2000, when there were 36.2 million Black people living in the U.S. African-American history began in the 16th century, with Africans being sold to European slave traders and transported across the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere. They were sold as slaves to European colonists and put to work on plantations, particularly in the southern colonies. A few were able to achieve freedom through ...
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Women In The American Civil War
During the American Civil War, sexual behavior, gender roles, and attitudes were affected by the conflict, especially by the absence of menfolk at home and the emergence of new roles for women such as nursing. Clothing adapted to these new roles, becoming more practical and functional as women took on additional responsibilities. The advent of photography and easier media distribution, for example, allowed for greater access to sexual material for the common soldier, while the changes in women's clothing reflected broader societal adjustments to the war's demands. Nursing Union During the Civil War (1861–65), the United States Sanitary Commission, a federal civilian agency, handled most of the medical and nursing care of the Union armies, together with necessary acquisition and transportation of medical supplies. Dorothea Dix, serving as the commission's Superintendent, was able to convince the medical corps of the value of women working in 350 Commission or Army hospitals. Nor ...
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African Americans In The American Civil War
African Americans, including former enslaved individuals, served in the American Civil War. The 186,097 black men who joined the Union Army included 7,122 Officer (armed forces), officers and 178,975 Enlisted rank, enlisted soldiers. Approximately 20,000 black sailors served in the Union Navy and formed a large percentage of many ships' crews. Later in the war, many regiments were recruited and organized as the United States Colored Troops, which reinforced the Northern forces substantially during the conflict's last two years. Both Northern Free Negro and Southern Contraband (American Civil War), runaway slaves joined the fight. Throughout the course of the war, black soldiers served in forty major battles and hundreds of more minor skirmishes; sixteen African Americans received the Medal of Honor. For the Confederate States of America, Confederacy, both free and enslaved black Americans were used for manual labor, but the issue of whether to arm them, and under what terms, became ...
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People From Adams County, Pennsylvania
The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. In contrast, a people is any plurality of persons considered as a whole. Used in politics and law, the term "a people" refers to the collective or community of an ethnic group or nation. Concepts Legal Chapter One, Article One of the Charter of the United Nations states that "peoples" have the right to self-determination. Though the mere status as peoples and the right to self-determination, as for example in the case of Indigenous peoples (''peoples'', as in all groups of indigenous people, not merely all indigenous persons as in ''indigenous people''), does not automatically provide for independent sovereignty and therefore secession. Indeed, judge Ivor Jennings identified the inherent problems in the right of "peoples" to self-determination, as i ...
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Businesspeople From Lancaster, Pennsylvania
A businessperson, also referred to as a businessman or businesswoman, is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) to generate cash flow, sales, and revenue by using a combination of human, financial, intellectual, and physical capital to fuel economic development and growth. History Medieval period: Rise of the merchant class Merchants emerged as a social class in medieval Italy. Between 1300 and 1500, modern accounting, the bill of exchange, and limited liability were invented, and thus, the world saw "the first true bankers", who were certainly businesspeople. Around the same time, Europe saw the " emergence of rich merchants." This "rise of the merchant class" came as Europe "needed a middleman" for the first time, and these "burghers" or "bourgeois" were the people who played this role. Renaissance to Enlightenment: Rise of t ...
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1884 Deaths
Events January * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London to promote gradualist social progress. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera ''Princess Ida'', a satire on feminism, premières at the Savoy Theatre, London. * January 7 – German microbiologist Robert Koch isolates ''Vibrio cholerae'', the cholera bacillus, working in India. * January 18 – William Price (physician), William Price attempts to cremate his dead baby son, Iesu Grist, in Wales. Later tried and acquitted on the grounds that cremation is not contrary to English law, he is thus able to carry out the ceremony (the first in the United Kingdom in modern times) on March 14, setting a legal precedent. * January – Arthur Conan Doyle's anonymous story "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" appears in the ''Cornhill Magazine'' (London). Based on the disappearance of the crew of the ''Mary Celeste'' in 1872, many of the fictional elements introduced by Doyle come to repla ...
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1810s Births
Year 181 ( CLXXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Burrus (or, less frequently, year 934 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 181 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Imperator Lucius Aurelius Commodus and Lucius Antistius Burrus become Roman Consuls. * The Antonine Wall is overrun by the Picts in Britannia (approximate date). Oceania * The volcano associated with Lake Taupō in New Zealand erupts, one of the largest on Earth in the last 5,000 years. The effects of this eruption are seen as far away as Rome and China. Births * April 2 – Xian of Han, Chinese emperor (d. 234) * Zhuge Liang, Chinese chancellor and regent (d. 234) Deaths * Aelius Aristides, Greek orator and writer (b. 117) * Cao Jie, Chinese ...
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Thirteenth Amendment To The United States Constitution
The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished Slavery in the United States, slavery and involuntary servitude, except Penal labor in the United States, as punishment for a crime. The amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House of Representatives on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the required 27 of the then 36 U.S. state, states on December 6, 1865, and proclaimed on December 18. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, effective on January 1, 1863, declared that the enslaved in Confederate-controlled areas (and thus almost all slaves) were free. When they escaped to Union lines or federal forces (including now-former slaves) advanced south, emancipation occurred without any compensation to the former owners. Texas was the last Confederate slave state, where enforcement of the proclamation was Juneteenth, ...
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