A Woman's Life-Work — Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland — Story, Setting & Ideas

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In Category - Modern Nations

Authors: Haviland, Laura S. (Laura Smith), 1808-1898 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2005 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Underground Railroad; Freed persons; Haviland, Laura S. (Laura Smith), 1808-1898 Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 180,186

Reading time 784 min

Text sections 14

Before opening A Woman's Life-Work — Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland — Story, Setting & Ideas, the edition data offers a quick orientation: 180,186 words, 13 hr 4 min estimated reading time, and 14 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 20.9 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Underground Railroad,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #7295

This editorial note examines the structure of Laura S. Haviland's memoir, focusing on her use of recurring images (dreams, hands, food) and movement between domestic, fugitive, and camp scenes, based on excerpts from the 1881 text.

Editorial Edition Score 4.8/5

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Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

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File: pg7295

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Parentage--Early Impressions--Childhood Skepticism--Religious Experience--The Great Leveler--Marriage--Removal to Michigan--The Semi-Christian--The Despairing Backslider Restored--Proscription--Withdrawal from the Society of Friends--Founded "Raisin Institute,"

Dream--Bereavements--Early Widowhood--Trials--Dreamy--Victory by Faith--A Fugitive Slave Escapes--Marriage of two Older Children,

ANTI-SLAVERY EXPERIENCES.

Baptist Deacon Convicted of the Sin of Slavery by his Slave--Willis Hamilton's Escape with his Slave-wife, Elsie, to Canada--Removal to Michigan--Whereabouts Discovered by Elsie's Master--Deeply Laid Scheme to Capture the Hamilton Family--Threats of Violence--Second Attempt and Defeat--Death of the two Slave-holders,

AN OHIO SCHOOL-TEACHER.

A Traveling Agent--Slave Claimant--John White--Threats--Visit to Jane White--Interview with William Allen--Escape of Slaves--In Suspense--Death of First-born--Comforting Dream--John White a Prisoner--His Release and Subsequent History,

THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY.

Two Slave Families Escape--Story of George and James--A Mother and Daughter Leave a Boat bound for the Lower Market--Sarah and two Young Men join our Party--Seven are Conducted to Canada--Raisin Institute Suspended for an Academic Year--Return to Cincinnati--Maria--Threats of her Master--The Escape of two Young Men

FUGITIVE SLAVES ASSISTED.

Clara and Three Children Rescued--Jack Betrayed and Returned to Bondage--A Little Nurse Girl taken from her Owners in Cincinnati--How Zack was Saved--Calvin Fairbanks Visited in Prison--Fugitive Slaves Forwarded

CHRISTIAN AND EDUCATIONAL WORK.

Visiting and Nursing the Sick--Nine Slaves Arrive from Kentucky--Richard Dillingham Dies in Tennessee Penitentiary--Seven Slaves Conducted to Freedom--Teach Six Months in Toledo

Mission Among the Fugitives in Canada--Religious Revival--Organization of a Christian Union Church--Efforts of Missourians to Retake the Fugitive Slave, William Anderson, from Canada--The Kentucky Slave-owner Whipped in the Old Barracks in Windsor in his Effort to Decoy Three Young Men back to Slavery--Reopening School

Escape of a Slave Family of Six--A Slave Man Travels for a White Man and Succeeds--Trip to Arkansas--The Story of George Wilson--The Slave-daughter under Mortgage Released by her Mother--Mintie Berry Purchases her Husband--John Brown Hanged--The War Opens and takes Seventeen Students of Raisin Institute--First Trip to the Front with Supplies

Cairo--Incidents Preparatory to Removing Freedmen's Camp to Island No. 10--Death of a Child--Disbursing Supplies and other Mission Work on the Island--Story of Uncle Stephen--Hospital Visiting in Memphis, Tennessee--Surgeon Powers Reported--Forty Slaves come into Camp Shiloh--Seven Slaves come from a Plantation seven miles below Memphis--First Enlistment of Colored Soldiers--Mission Work in Columbus, Kentucky--Young Colored Man Shot by his Young Master--Turning of Tables--Return Home--Our Principal, E. A. Haight, Enlisted

Organized Freedmen's Relief Association--Solicit Supplies--Academic Year Opened for 1863-4--Sister Backus and Self leave for Fields of Suffering--Incidents on the Way--Mission Work in Natchez, Mississippi--Four Hundred Slaves Hanged and otherwise Tortured--Visit to the Calaboose--Mission Work in Baton Rouge--Arrival at New Orleans--Sketch of Persecutions

MISSION WORK IN NEW ORLEANS.

Mission Work in New Orleans--Soldiers and Prisoners Visited on Ship Island--Petition of Seventy Soldier Prisoners in behalf of Three Thousand of their Fellow Prisoners--Appeal in behalf of Ship Island and Tortugas Prisoners--Mission Work at Plaquemine--Natchez--Capture of a Rebel steamer--Arrival at Home--Release of the Three Thousand Banished Union Soldiers

FREEDMEN'S AID COMMISSION.

Refugees in Kansas--Children of Want--Afflicted Family--Scenes of Distress--Agnes Everett--Quantrell's Raid--Poor White Trash--Hospitals--Supplies Distributed--Refugee Buildings--Orphan Children--Haviland Home--Thomas Dean a Prisoner--Petition for Pardon--Pardon Granted--A Southern Clergyman--Mission School--At Harper's Ferry and Washington.

Mission Work and Incidents in Washington--Murders--Alexandria--Richmond, Virginia--Williamsburg--Fort Magruder--Yorktown--Suicide--Gloucester Court-house--Fortress Monroe--Norfolk--Return to Washington--White Woman Whipped.

EXPERIENCES AMONG FREEDMEN.

A Soldier Prisoner--Interesting Statistics--Schools--Plantations--Incidents--Return to Washington--Return Home with Fifteen Orphans and Fifty Laborers--Change in Orphan Asylum--Mission Work in Covington and Newport, Kentucky--Mission Work in Memphis, Tennessee--Uncle Philip a Remarkable Man--Return Home.

Board of Directors Arrange for Closing the Home--Discouragements--Relief Comes by Sleigh-loads--Encouragements--Petitions to the State Legislature to make the Home a State Institution--Petitions Granted, and the Orphan's Home becomes the "State Public School," located at Coldwater--Work in State Public School.

CHRISTIAN LABOR AND RESULTS.

Work for the Asylum--Again in Washington--Mission Work--Trial of Henry Wirtz--Inspecting Soup-houses--Incidents connected with Kendal Green Camp--Peremptory Order of J. R. Shipherd Closing Asylum--Children Scattered--Returned Home with Authority from American Missionary Association to Reopen Asylum--Dangerous Fall--Restored to Asylum Work--Overtaken with Convulsions--Answer to Prayer in being Restored.

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FREEDMEN.

Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association--Testimony of Perry Bradley--Incidents--Persecutions--Prof. Greener--Colored Republicans--Further Testimony--Negro Woman Killed--Letter from the South--Atrocities--Refugees in Kansas--Bull-dosing--Kansas Overfull--Protection Needed--Michael Walsh--Silver Linings.

PROSPECTS OF THE FREEDMEN.

Supplies Furnished--Relief Association at Work--Northern Outrages--Prudence Crandall--Colored Schools--Freedmen's Aid Schools--Industrial and Agricultural Institute.

STEEL PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR THE SLAVEHOLDERS' THREATS. SLAVE IRONS. CLARK UNIVERSITY FOR FREEDMEN (CHRISMAN HALL). MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE.

At the earnest solicitation of many dear friends I have consented to leave on record some of the incidents that have fallen under my personal observation during three-score and ten years.

My father, Daniel Smith, was a native of Eastern New York, and for many years an approved minister in the Society of Friends. He was a man of ability and influence, of clear perceptions, and strong reasoning powers.

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Laura S. Haviland's memoir moves through a series of distinct settings—a Michigan farm, an Ohio schoolhouse, a fugitive's hiding place, a Civil War contraband camp—without marking transitions with chapter summaries or rhetorical flourishes. The narrative proceeds by accumulation of episodes, each introduced by a simple date or location shift. This structural choice gives the book the feel of a traveling journal, where the author's physical movement from place to place becomes the organizing principle.

Recurring images anchor these shifts. Dreams appear at moments of loss or decision: a dream of her deceased children, a comforting dream after her first-born's death. Hands are repeatedly emphasized—swollen from handshakes, reaching out to freedpeople. Food—a handful of meal, rations given to starving refugees—marks the concrete relief Haviland provided. These details, drawn from the excerpts, suggest a memoir built not on abstract argument but on tangible, repeated actions.

Dreams as Structural Markers

In the excerpts, Haviland records at least two dreams, both placed at points of personal crisis. The chapter titled "Bereavements" includes a dream that precedes or accompanies loss; later, after the death of her first-born, she reports a "comforting dream." These are not analyzed or interpreted at length—they are simply narrated as events. This pattern suggests that Haviland uses dreams as a way to mark emotional turning points without explicit commentary. The reader is left to infer the significance from the placement. The dreams function almost like chapter breaks in a novel, signaling that a period of trial has passed or is about to begin. Notably, the dreams are not prophetic in a dramatic sense; they are retrospective, offering solace rather than prediction. This restraint keeps the focus on the author's inner life without veering into sensationalism.

The Recurring Motif of Hands and Touch

Haviland repeatedly draws attention to hands—her own and others'. In the camp scene, she describes her hands as "lame and swollen for three days" after hundreds of freedpeople shook them. Earlier, in the preface, she writes of her "deep and abiding sympathies" but does not linger on physical contact. The contrast is instructive: the memoir's later sections become more tactile. Hands also appear in the context of labor: the author is a teacher, a traveler, a distributor of rations. The swollen hands are not a complaint but a marker of the scale of her work. This physical detail recurs without sentimentality, grounding abstract sympathy in bodily experience. It is one of the few places where the author's own body enters the narrative, and it does so as evidence of effort, not as a bid for pity.

Food as a Measure of Need and Relief

Food appears in the excerpts as a precise indicator of deprivation and assistance. A freedman tells Haviland that his family received "little han'ful o' meal a day" from their mistress, while bacon was locked away for soldiers. Haviland's response is immediate: "Rations were given to that hungry company at once." The contrast between withheld and given food is stark. Earlier in the memoir, the author's own household likely faced scarcity, but the excerpts do not dwell on that. Instead, food becomes a tool for establishing trust: the freedpeople's suspicion that Yankees boil and eat black people is dispelled by the simple act of feeding. Haviland does not moralize; she reports the exchange and lets the action speak. This pattern—identifying a need, meeting it, recording the result—recurs throughout the excerpts and appears to be a structural habit of the narrative.

Movement Between Domestic and Public Spaces

The excerpts show Haviland moving fluidly between private and public settings. She visits camps, speaks from a platform, and enters tents; but she also writes from a domestic perspective, addressing her memoir to her children and grandchildren. The preface frames the book as a family record, yet the content ranges across the Underground Railroad and Civil War fronts. This oscillation between intimate address and public action is a key structural feature. Haviland does not separate her roles: she is a mother writing to her children and a reformer addressing a national audience in the same sentences. The effect is a narrative that feels personal even when describing large events. The reader is never allowed to forget that the author is a woman, a widow, a mother—and that these identities are the foundation of her public work.

Readers approaching this memoir will benefit from attending to its small, concrete details—the dreams, the swollen hands, the rations distributed. Haviland rarely explains why she includes a particular episode; she trusts the reader to see the pattern. The book's structure is additive rather than analytical, and its power lies in the accumulation of such moments. To read it well is to notice what the author notices: the physical evidence of suffering and relief, and the quiet persistence of a woman who moved through many rooms and many camps, recording what she saw.

I keep thinking about how Laura Haviland’s hands appear again and again, kneading bread for fugitives, then writing letters in lamplight. It’s the same quiet persistence I felt reading about Samuel Pepys and the Royal Navy — Story, Setting & Ideas—how a person’s daily chores slowly become history, without them ever meaning to. That tenderness stays with you.