Episode Details

"Who is my father?"

The question has haunted Lydia Hamilton since she was five. A mixed-race girl growing up in early 19th-century Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Lydia navigates her youth, her marriage, and eventual separation from Jacob Smith, to her dual role as housekeeper and business manager for an attorney named Thaddeus Stevens. From the Heart of Lydia is her story, available on the Loch Ness Books imprint.

Darlene Colón is the visible presence of Lydia Hamilton Smith. Performing in period costume, Colón shares Lydia's life and her accomplishments with local students and at historical events. She is the founder of the Lydia Hamilton Society and cofounder of the African American Historical Society of Southcentral Pennsylvania. Colón is also president of the Christiana Historical Society; she has received awards from the NAACP, the YWCA, the Junior League of Lancaster, and the Lancaster Historical Society for her first-person interpretations of local African American women.