Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge

Description:

Elleanor Eldridge, born of African and US indigenous descent in 1794, operated a lucrative domestic services business in nineteenth century Providence, Rhode Island. She purchased land and built rental property from the wealth she gained as a business owner. In the 1830s, Eldridge was defrauded of her property by a white lender. In a series of common court cases as alternately defendant and plaintiff, she managed to recover it through the Rhode Island judicial system. In order to raise funds to carry out this litigation, her memoir, which includes statements from employers endorsing her respectable character, was published in 1838. Frances Harriet Whipple, an aspiring white writer in Rhode Island, narrated and co-authored Eldridge's story, expressing a proto-feminist outrage at the male "extortioners" who caused Eldridge's loss and distress.

subjects: African american women,  African americans, social conditions,  Providence (r.i.),  Rhode island, biography,  Rhode island, social conditions,  Biography,  African Americans,  Free blacks,  Social conditions,  Race relations,  Women, biography,  African americans, rhode island,  Free Black people