Halfway Brook

In August 1839 a group of freeborn Africans, victims in double illegal circumstances, made headlines in the United States.

Earlier in the year the West Africans had been taken captive by fellow Africans and forced to make the trek to the infamous Slave citadel Lomboko, on the West African coast. They were compelled to board the Slave ship Tecora to take the nightmarish Middle Passage to Cuba, a Spanish Colony.

In Cuba, knowing it was illegal, slave traders Ruiz and Montez purchased the fifty-four surviving captive Africans. (Illegal since 1820, selling Africans continued because Spanish authorities received ten dollars for each person sold into slavery.) Ruiz and Montez forced the group to board la Amistad, at the Havana Port. From there they were to be transported to another Cuban port to become Slaves on a plantation.

But on July 2, 1839 the Captives, led by Joseph Cinque* (a kidnapped rice farmer of the Mende people), escaped their shackles, killed the Captain and the cook, and seized control of la Amistad. The freed Africans pressured Ruiz and Montez to sail the schooner to Africa, which the slave traders did during the day. But at night they guided the two-masted vessel towards the American coast.

In late August 1839 the Amistad arrived on the east side of Long Island, New York. The ship was captured. Those on board were taken captive to Connecticut because that state had not yet freed Slaves.

The Amistad Case
On board la Amistad were forty-five Africans (including three girls and one boy) and the two Spanish slave traders. Ruiz and Montez claimed the Africans were their Slaves, and accused them of piracy and murder.

Abolitionists (including Arthur Tappan and his brother Lewis) became involved and made major efforts to raise funds. Roger Sherman Baldwin (grandson of Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence) helped to defend the group in court against the American President Martin Van Buren, the Spanish government, and Ruiz and Montez.

The Africans were imprisoned in New Haven for eighteen months—the time it took for three court cases.

It is possible that at least Julia Smith attended the first two court cases. Julia wrote that she and her sisters visited the Amistad Africans in New Haven, and later in Farmington. Continue reading →

This is one of several poems regarding slavery written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807–1882. The woodcut of Longfellow was part of a news article in Mary Ann Eldred Austin’s Scrapbook.—Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann, p. 135.

Loud he sang the psalm of David!
He, a Negro and enslaved,
Sang of Israel’s victory,
Sang of Zion, bright and free.

In that hour, when night is calmest,
Sang he from the Hebrew Psalmist,
In a voice so sweet and clear
That I could not choose but hear,

Songs of triumph, and ascriptions,
Such as reached the swart Egyptians,
When upon the Red Sea coast
Perished Pharaoh and his host.

And the voice of his devotion
Filled my soul with strange emotion;
For its tones by turns were glad,
Sweetly solemn, wildly sad.

Paul and Silas, in their prison,
Sang of Christ, the Lord arisen.
And an earthquake’s arm of might
Broke their dungeon-gates at night.

But, alas! what holy angel
Brings the Slave this glad evangel?
And what earthquake’s arm of might
Breaks his dungeon-gates at night?
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Hannah Smith and her daughters were very much involved in the Abolition movement which fought to free slaves. It was a very challenging chapter to write because of the horrors and many injustices involved with people who had been enslaved.

This is the first of several sidebar posts from “Chapter Ten: The Heinous Sin, the Smiths and the Abolitionists, 1830s.”

I have been a Slave myself…The man that says Slaves be quite happy in slavery—that they don’t want to be free—that man is either ignorant or a lying person. I never heard a Slave say so.

I never heard a Buckra (White) man say so, till I heard tell of it in England…The great God above alone knows the thoughts of the poor Slave’s heart, and the bitter pains which follow such separations…—Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince.

There was a very concerted effort in Great Britain to free Slaves. The story is well told in Simon Schama’s, Rough Crossings. British heroes include the incredible John Clarkson.

On May 15, 1830 English members of the Anti-Slavery Society (including Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, brother of John) held a convention requesting slavery be abolished in the British Empire as early as possible.

Using pamphlets, handbills, and posters, English Anti-Slavery societies increased from 200 to 1,300. Petitions with hundreds of thousands of signatures flooded Westminster. Three hundred fifty thousand women signed one of the more than five thousand petitions to end slavery, which were then sent to Parliament.

In 1831 The History of Mary Prince was published. Mary Prince’s first person account told of the many trials she endured as a Slave growing up in Bermuda and is thought to have encouraged the freeing of Slaves in the British West Indies.

In August 1833 King William IV signed the West India Emancipation Act. The act was to take effect in 1840, to give the economies of the West Indies time to adjust to the change. The law used a two-step approach to free 800,000 Africans from their British slave owners. Great Britain was to pay slave owners £20 million to free the West India Slaves. Continue reading →

In 1824, more than half a century ago, the marquis Gilbert Motier de Lafayette, for the Fourth Time, visited the United States. His arrival was hailed with universal joy throughout the land; and he passed through the twenty-four States of the Union in a round of civic and martial triumphs, unequaled in magnificence and splendor. During that visit, it was my good fortune to become acquainted with him, and to witness some of the most splendid displays on that occasion…—Amos Parker, Recollections of Lafayette, p. 9.

In August 1824 the very popular Revolutionary War Hero of two continents, Marquis de Lafayette, age sixty-six, began his fourth and last tour of the United States.

At eleven o’clock the morning of September fourth, General Lafayette arrived at Hartford, Connecticut. A street full of militia and many others, including the Smiths, welcomed him.

Julia Smith had never seen so many people. She and her family waited while Lafayette ate lunch in the house on the opposite side of the street. Around one o’clock the Smiths went to the courthouse where they “were presented to the Marquis who took us by the hand.”

As Lafayette took her hand, Julia said in French, “We are pleased to see you Monsieur le Marquis. Lafayette replied in French, thanking her. “Monsieur le Marquis left Hartford for New York in a steamboat,” Julia wrote in French in her journal.

In New York Lafayette visited Mrs. Willard’s Troy Female Seminary. “The General was much moved” and requested three copies (one for each of his daughters) of the welcome song the young ladies of the Troy Female Seminary had sung.

Continue reading →

Halfway Brook Friends,

I hope everyone is staying well and warm with all the snow, ice, and cold this winter. It was 30 degrees here in Cave Creek, AZ when I got up this morning. A bit cold for this time of year here, but nothing like what other parts of the country are facing.

I am disappointed to report that the latest proof copy of Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann did not come close to being approved. We are currently looking into a new printer, in hopes that will work. I’ll update you when I have news of the imminent availability of Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann.

Meanwhile, I hope to post some more excerpts or images from Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann, though not in chronological order.

I collected a number of sleighing images for Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann. I thought Halfway Brook readers might enjoy this one which was not used. (Click on it twice to get the full size.)

Until next time,

Louise

I have ordered a second hard copy proof of Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann, and am hopeful that I can make it available at that time. (The time it takes to ship have increased, so it may be at least two weeks away. The interior is in the best color printing available, and of course the costs have risen, so the book will be more costly than I hoped.)

Table of Contents Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann
(There are also 150 sidebars listed in the book, Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann.)
Northeast United States Map
1848 Connecticut Map
1868 Southbury, Connecticut Map
1855 Glastenbury, Connecticut Map
1854 Towns of Lumberland and Highland, New York Map
Selected Descendants of William and Elizabeth Hitchcock
1600–1930 Timeline

Chapter 1: The First Four Hickok Ancestors
William, Joseph, Benjamin, Justus, 1635–1770

Chapter 2: Shillings, Scholars, Linen, and Pecks
David Hickok’s Journals, 1769–1775

Chapter 3: Ticonderoga and Crown Point
The Hickoks and the Revolutionary War, 1775–1783

Chapter 4: Books, Conversations, and Chocolate
Hannah’s Journal, 1784–1786

Chapter 5: Farewell to South Britain
The Hickok First Cousins, 1790–1800

Chapter 6: Reading, Writing, and Responsibilities
Five Smith Daughters, 1800-1816

Chapter 7: Rugged Wilderness Living
Hannah Hickok in Lumberland, 1812–1818

Chapter 8: Caring, Visiting, and Teaching
The Smiths, 1817–1824

Chapter 9: Hannah Marries James
Lumberland, New York, 1825–1827

Chapter 10: The Heinous Sin
The Smiths and the Abolitionists, 1830s
Continue reading →

We leave the Smiths in Glastenbury in 1825 to visit the younger Hannah Hickok, her brother Justus Hickok, and the Eldred Family who live in Lumberland, New York. Hannah’s life is about to have a major change.

Daily work in Lumberland, whether on the farm, inside the house, or lumbering, continued to be challenging. Obtaining food and necessities of life was still difficult and time consuming. Unlike the Smiths who were just seven miles from the major city of Hartford, the Hickoks and Eldreds had to travel quite a distance.

The 120-mile-round trip to Newburgh, New York, on the Hudson River, took a week. It was only nineteen miles to Port Jervis, New York, to purchase grains ground into flour and dry goods. But the route, which overlooked the Delaware River, included the Hawk’s Nest, a winding, sometimes treacherous path, carved out of the mountainside. Travel was easiest in the winter when the Delaware River was frozen.

Hickoks in Pennsylvania
In 1825 only Hannah Hickok and her brother Justus Hickok and his family remained in Lumberland, New York. Their parents Asa and Esther Hinman Hickok, and siblings Louisa and Reuben Hickok had relocated to Warren Township, Bradford County.

In 1854 Abby and Laurilla Smith first visit Louisa and Reuben Hickok, in Pennsylvania, before spending time with Hannah and Justus, in New York.

James Eldred, Widower
Such sadness in the James Eldred Family. From 1820 to 1823 three daughters (two had been born in Lumberland) of James and Polly Eldred died. Then in January of 1825 Polly Mulford Eldred died, at age thirty-seven. James was now a widower with four children, ages nine to nineteen, living at home.

James Eldred continued working in the local Lumberland government as Town Clerk, Commissioner of Highways, and Town Marshall. James owned almost 685 acres. The northwest corner of one parcel was the location of the future Halfway Brook Village, later renamed Eldred.

Hannah Hickok, her brother Justus and his wife Mary Wells continued to attend the rural church often held at the Eldred home where James was the Bible teacher.

Hannah Marries James
In February 1826 Hannah Hickok married James Eldred. She now had the care of the two youngest children: Eliza, who married the following year, and Phebe Maria, age ten. The family still lived in the old log cabin by the sawmill, near Halfway Brook.

Mary Ann Eldred
In December 1827 Mary Ann Eldred, my great-grandmother was born. (The Smith sisters and Mary Ann Eldred were second cousins.)

I’m excited to say I am on the final edit of a black and white hard copy of Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann. The maps, timeline, trees, sidebars, text, Endnotes, Bibliography, Acknowledgments, Index, and About the Author are complete.

The cover is in the final stages. The book interior will be in color. There are still some steps before the book is printed, but, after seven years, it’s encouraging to be getting so close.

Laurilla and Zephina Smith saw Mrs. Willard (Emma Hart Willard) when they were in Hartford, in September 1821.

Soon after, Mrs. Willard opened her Female Seminary for boarding and day students, in Troy, New York. Finally, a school which offered mathematics, philosophy, geography, history, and science to women.

In 1823 Almira Hart Lincoln, Emma’s sister, became a teacher and Vice-Principal at Troy Female Seminary. A recent widow Almira, the youngest of seventeen children, had lived with the Smiths for several weeks (in 1813) so she could copy Laurilla’s paintings.

In January 1823 Emma Hart Willard, in her continual search for qualified teachers, wrote and asked Laurilla Smith to teach French. Julia did not want Laurilla to leave. But Laurilla wanted to go. So in February 1823 Laurilla, age thirty-four, left for Troy, New York, some 100 miles northwest of Glastenbury, Connecticut.

Learn Euclid, Teach French
Emma Willard needed someone to teach Euclidean geometry. She thought Julia would be that person. This was the plan: Mrs. Willard would teach geometry to Julia. To pay for those lessons Julia would teach French. After Julia learned Euclidean geometry, Julia would teach the subject to students at the Troy Female Seminary.

Hannah, Laurilla, Cyrinthia, Zephina, and Abby thought that was a good idea. Julia did not. Perhaps Laurilla’s tease that Julia would have to take a back seat to the young Eden ladies who (Laurilla said) “knew twenty languages,” was a challenge Julia could not pass up.

Julia quipped that she “would not take a back seat, for great books do not always make great scholars. When I see these young ladies I will ask them ‘nine plain questions’ from Steady Habits Vindicated; or, Nine Plain Questions to the People of Connecticut, a book on Federalism.” Many years later Julia commented to her friend Frances Burr:

I became a teacher of French and mathematics at Mrs. Willard’s and taught these very same young ladies, Aaron Burr’s friends, the Misses Eden, who knew so much. I wrote home that these young ladies who were going to make me take a back seat, were my scholars.
—Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann, p. 114.

Emma Hart was the sixteenth child of Samuel Hart and the ninth child of Mr. Hart and his second wife Lydia. Samuel encouraged his daughter Emma to love learning, reading, and to think for herself.

In 1802 when Laurilla and Cyrinthia Smith attended Sarah Pierce’s Litchfield Female Academy, Emma Hart, fifteen, attended the Berlin Academy in Connecticut, for the first time. By 1806 Emma was in charge of the academy for a term.

In 1807 Emma was principal of the Middlebury Female Seminary, in Vermont, where Emma met and married physician John Willard.

(In March of 1813 Emma’s younger sister Almira Hart stayed at the Smith home for three or four weeks to copy Laurilla’s paintings.)

In 1814 Emma, champion for equal education for young women, opened a boarding school for girls in her own home (in Vermont) so they could study the same subjects her nephew took at College.

Emma Hart Willard strongly believed that young women should be offered the same subjects as men took in college. At the time finishing schools, which mainly taught social graces, were thought to be the correct education for girls. Emma faced similar opposition to educating women as Sarah Pierce had in 1790.

Using her teaching experience in Vermont, Emma wrote a pamphlet, A Plan for Improving Female Education. In 1819 hoping the New York Legislature would fund a seminary for women as they did men’s schools, Emma presented her plan. She explained that some of the weakness in female education was because the Legislatures undervalued “the importance of women in society.” Finishing schools, which majored on protocols and etiquette, were expensive and not a good value. “Another error” was that educating women had been “to prepare them to please” men. Continue reading →