Lyddie: Chapter 23 - Vermont, November 1846

Oberlin College 1846.  Engraved print depicting collegiate buildings on the campus of Oberlin College as they appeared in the 1840's. This print was an illustration in the 1847 edition of the "Historical Collections of Ohio" by Henry Howe.

Robert Samuel Fletcher, A History of Oberlin College: From its Foundation through the Civil War , Vol. 1 (Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, 1943)

Lost and uncertain, Lyddie heads for Cutler’s Tavern, near her farmhouse home. Like Diana, Triphena is very happy to see Lyddie, but they both know the tavern is no longer a place for her. Lyddie pays to spend a night in one of the tavern’s guest rooms and goes to see her brother and sister at the Phinneys the next day. When she arrives, she finds that both children are at school, so Lyddie leaves.

With no place else to go, Lyddie heads to her family’s old farm, even though it has been sold. It looks exactly as she remembers it. She has only been in the cabin for a few minutes when the door opens, and Luke Stevens enters. His mother had seen her walking down the road. Luke invites her to his home for dinner, and the night, if she will stay. As they walk together quietly, Lyddie thinks about his marriage proposal. Although she realizes that someday, Luke could be someone she might love, she has made up her mind to go west first. She wants to go to college and become her own, free woman, as she understands it. Maybe Luke Stevens will wait.

Fact Check: Oberlin

Was Oberlin unique in admitting women as students?

What do we know?

Today, Oberlin College is known as the first institution in the country to grant bachelor’s degrees to women and Black students. Together with Antioch College, also in Ohio, these institutions were an exception to the norm. There were a variety of other options for women seeking higher education at the time, including female seminaries, academies, and professional courses to prepare them for work as teachers. Attaining education beyond grade school remained extremely rare during the early nineteenth century.

What is the evidence?

Secondary Source:

“Among Oberlin’s earliest graduates were women and [B]lack people. While Oberlin was coeducational from its founding in 1833, the college regularly admitted [B]lack students beginning in 1835, after trustee and abolitionist, the Rev. John Keep, cast the deciding vote to allow them entry.

Women were not admitted to the baccalaureate program, which granted bachelor’s degrees, until 1837. Prior to that, they received diplomas from what was called the Ladies Course. The college admitted its first group of women in 1837: Caroline Mary Rudd, Elizabeth Prall, Mary Hosford, and Mary Fletcher Kellogg, although Kellogg did not complete her degree in 1841 along with the others”

“Oberlin History.” Oberlin College and Conservatory, June 16, 2023. https://www.oberlin.edu/about-oberlin/oberlin-history.

Primary Source:

I have earned enough to school me awhile, & have I not a right to do so, or must I go home, like a dutifull girl, place the money in father’s hands, & then there goes all my hard earnings…I merely wish to go [to Oberlin] because I think it is the best way of spending the money I have worked so hard to earn.

“Mill worker Lucy Ann in a letter to her cousin,” 1851. Quoted in Thomas Dublin, Transforming Women’s Work: New England Lives in the Industrial Revolution. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994).

Voices from the Field

"Ambition" by Dr. Jason Opal, Professor of History and Classical Studies, McGill University and author of Beyond the Farm: National Ambitions in Rural New England

Voices from the Field

"Oberlin" by Dr. John Frederick Bell, assistant professor of History at Assumption University and author of Degrees of Equality: Abolitionist Colleges and the Politics of Race (2022).

Photos & Multimedia

Map showing the train routes Lyddie could take from Vermont to Ohio. Photograph. Edward Weber & Co. (1840) Map shewing the connection of the Baltimore and Ohio-Rail-Road with other rail roads executed or in progress throughout the United States. [Baltimore Lith. of Ed. Weber & Co. 184-?] [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/gm70002855/.

Writing Prompts

Informative/explanatory

Lyddie is still torn over her feelings for Luke. What reasons does she tell herself that she’s better off going to Oberlin for the time being?

Narrative

Write a short story about Lyddie’s journey to Oberlin College and her first days attending classes there. What would she see on her train journey to Ohio? Who are her new friends at Oberlin? How would she get along in her classes?