Lydia Hamilton Smith was the long-time housekeeper of Thaddeus Stevens and a prominent businesswoman after his death.
Lydia Hamilton Smith
Exterior of Lydia Hamilton Smith house in Lancaster
In the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, Representative Austin Stoneman (played by Ralph Lewis) and his housekeeper Lydia Brown (played by Mary Alden) are considered as standing for Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith.
Thaddeus Stevens was an American politician and lawyer who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, being one of the leaders of the Radical Republican faction of the Republican Party during the 1860s. A fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against black Americans, Stevens sought to secure their rights during Reconstruction, leading the opposition to U.S. President Andrew Johnson. As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee during the American Civil War, he played a leading role, focusing his attention on defeating the Confederacy, financing the war with new taxes and borrowing, crushing the power of slave owners, ending slavery, and securing equal rights for the freedmen.
Portrait by Brady-Handy, c. 1860–1868
Stevens's home on Queen Street, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Southern view of the proposed compromises of 1860 and 1861, with "Dr. North" (Stevens) proposing to cut the South's legs off using a constitutional amendment. Stevens actually opposed such measures.
Stevens in a thoughtful pose
