Yes, I am Sophia Lewis. I am a free black slave and a weaver. I am married to John Levy. We have no kids. I am 43 years old. First John and I lived in the southern states and then we moved to Lowell.
"In the 1830s and 1840s, Lowell was one of the few cities in New England that opened its' public grammar schools and high school to young women, African Americans, and people of color.
Although in the 1840s, Sophia Lewis Levy's children went to the Lowell schools, it is unlikely that Sophia, John, or their children would have been allowed to work in the mills. There is evidence that a few Native Americans worked in the Lowell mills, but among the thousands and thousands of mill workers in Lowell before the Civil War none were African American."
Martha Mayo, Director
Center fro Lowell History
University of Massachusetts Lowell Profiles
in Courage: African-Americans in Lowell