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Sacred Nine Project: Hannah and her Daughters
The Smiths of Glastonbury & and a transcription of a transcription of life in Revolutionary Connecticut
Saturday, November 8, 2025, 7:30PM, First Church of Glastonbury, Glastonbury, Connecticut
While researching for The Mending Sampler, I was looking for other primary sources for Revolutionary girls who sew’d. I discovered a two journals and other sundry writings from one Hannah Hadassah Hickok of Connecticut. As these writings were not available online, I retriev’d them from the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History. I began transcribing a rather lengthy journal, in which Hannah herself was transcribing—in 1844—her journal from 60 years before that, 1784!
Transcribing sounds easy, but I assure you it is not. First, I had to get accustom’d to the script and often unconventional spelling and manner of writing. (You’ll notice that I’m using an apostrophe when a word ends in an “ed”; Hannah did, too!) Then, I tried to decipher (which I often did!) what was faded or what Hannah herself tried to conceal. Next, there are all the names, some of which are abbreviated, and many which are not at all common today. Other challenges are the little doodles and graphs that surely have some meaning, but what?
After making this transcription of a transcription, I was fascinated by this young woman, sometimes catty, sometimes capricious, always adventurous, and eternally self-deprecating. Then I transcribed another journal from when she is 60 years older: quite a contrast to her earlier musings.
This strong woman married Zephaniah Smith and had five daughters. Hannah and her daughters are known as the Smiths of Glastonbury. Their accomplishments are many. Julia was the first woman to translate the Bible from its original languages. She and her sister, Abby, made a very well-documented and sensational feminist stand against taxation without representation. They were also abolitionists. We will celebrate the Smiths in original musical settings from Hannah’s Journal and poems, as well as other contemporary sources.
Honest confession: thanks to Hannah, I now write only with fountain pens, and I have even changed my handwriting to be more like hers, the lowercase “d'“s in particular!
