Elleanor Eldridge (1794-1862) was born free in
Rhode Island. She and her siblings acquired considerable property
and local prestige, despite rampant racism against people of color
in the state. As a successful proprietor and entrepreneur in
Warwick and Providence, Elleanor Eldridge cultivated and maintained
harmonious relationships with the white women she served such that
they backed her during a series of lawsuits in which she was
involved, and eventually won.
Frances Harriet Whipple Green McDougall
(1805-1878) was a minor US woman writer committed to developing a
career for herself as a publishing social activist as well as to
creating opportunities for other women and for people of color. Her
first publication, The Original, was a magazine for New England
women short-lived in the early 1820s. Her biographies of Elleanor
Eldridge followed. She went on to publish in multiple genres
ranging from abolitionist magazines, prolabor tracts, botany
textbooks, and temperance and Spiritualist tracts.
Joycelyn K. Moody is the Sue E. Denman
Distinguished Chair in American Literature and Professor of English
at the University of Texas at San Antonio, USA where she teaches
and publishes on black print culture studies, US narratives of
slavery, African American autobiography, and women's
self-representation. She is also founding Director of UTSA's
African American Literatures and Cultures Institute. With John
Ernest, she co-edits the West Virginia University Press series
Regenerations: African American Literature and Culture.
Ask a Question About this Product More... |