“The Rise and Fall of New England Almshouses and Poor Farms” lecture and book signing by author Jod

Author Jodi Lew-Smith will talk about the history of almshouses and poorhouses in New England. She will also discuss her fictional portrayal of a poor farm in her historical novel, Asa James.

“The Rise and Fall of New England Almshouses and Poor Farms” lecture and book signing by author Jodi Lew Smith

Vermont author Jodi Lew-Smith will speak about the history of almshouses, poorhouses and poor farms in New England. In an engaging talk that’s been getting rave reviews, she’ll follow the rise and decline of the “indoor relief” system, in which towns and counties took responsibility for sheltering “their own poor”. Her talk will touch on state-wide systems as well as the local, with discussion of how the old systems compare to what we have now. She’ll further explain the reasoning behind her fictional portrayal of a poor farm in her historical novel, Asa James, the tale of a young man raised on an 1875 Vermont poor farm—where he grew the ambition to be the next Charles Darwin. The novel has won multiple fiction prizes, including the American Legacy and Feathered Quill Book Awards for historical fiction and the National Indie Excellence Award and Independent Publisher Book Award for regional fiction of the Northeast.