The story of Lydia Hamilton Smith
February 2026
By Ross Hetrick
Lydia Hamilton Smith would have remained an obscure historical figure except that she was used by the enemies of Thaddeus Stevens to try to discredit him.
As a lifelong bachelor Stevens employed housekeepers both in Gettysburg and Lancaster. Smith was Stevens's last housekeeper and worked for him from either 1844 or 1848 until his death in 1868. From all accounts, Smith was an excellent housekeeper who also served as his nurse as was common for housekeepers in those days. She was also a savvy businesswoman and assisted Stevens in some of his various endeavors. After his death, Smith parleyed the $5,000 left to her by Stevens into a successful boarding house in Washington, D.C. She would have led a successful if not notable life except that worked for a famous abolitionist and she was a quarter African American.
Stevens's enemies, which were legion, jump on this combination and loudly proclaimed that Smith was his mistress and she had misled him into his anti-slavery beliefs. Of course this ignored the fact that Stevens had started his crusade against slavery 20 years before employing Smith.
"No more curious or sinister figure ever cast a shadow across the history of a great nation than did this mulatto woman in the most corrupt hour of American life. The grim old man who looked into her sleek tawny face and followed her catlike eyes was steadily gripping the Nation by the throat. Did he aim to me this woman the arbiter of its social life, and her ethics the limit of its moral laws?"
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