The Secret Trust of Aspasia Cruvellier Mirault : The Life and Trials of a Free Woman of Color in Antebellum Georgia

In this fascinating biography set in nineteenth-century Savannah, Georgia, Janice L. Sumler-Edmond resurrects the life and times of Aspasia Cruvellier Mirault, a free woman of color whose story was until now lost to historical memory. It s a story that informs our understanding of the antebellum South as we watch this widowed matriarch navigate the social, economic, and political complexities to create a legacy for her family."

In this fascinating biography set in nineteenth-century Savannah, Georgia, Janice L. Sumler-Edmond resurrects the life and times of Aspasia Cruvellier Mirault, a free woman of color whose story was until now lost to historical memory. It's a story that informs our understanding of the antebellum South as we watch this widowed matriarch navigate the social, economic, and political complexities to create a legacy for her family.

Publishers Weekly

Historian Sumler-Edmond's book spotlights a mostly forgotten property dispute in 19th-century Savannah, Ga., that erupted into a legal quagmire revealing a clandestine agreement between a matronly free woman of color and a young white man. The Cruvelliers, free mulattoes from Santo Domingo, arrived in Georgia in 1800, fleeing the turmoil of the Haitian revolution; Aspasia built a successful business, but prohibited from purchasing property as a black person, she enlisted George Cally to make the bid and down payment with her money. The arrangement worked well-a romantic attachment between Aspasia's daughter and Cally is hinted at-but when mother and daughter died, the family lost their two closest links to Cally, who claimed sole ownership. Sumler-Edmond recreates the battle of the heirs with a wealth of research, legal documentation, trial records and local history. This carefully speculative history is heavy going at times, but scholars will find this chip in the monolithic view of antebellum Southern life worthy of attention, while general readers may want to wait for the novel this ought to inspire. (Nov.)

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"In this biography set in nineteenth-century Savannah, Georgia, Janice L. Sumler-Edmond resurrects the life and times of Aspasia Cruvellier Mirault, a free woman of color whose story was until now lost to historical memory. It's a story that informs our understanding of the antebellum South as we watch this widowed matriarch navigate the social, economic, and political complexities to create a legacy for her family." "In the spring of 1842, Aspasia entered into a secret trust with a white man whose help she needed to become a landowner. Sumler-Edmond's research of Aspasia's family and this trust arrangement, the outcome of which was determined by a dramatic three-party trial that went to the Georgia Supreme Court in 1878, provides new perspectives on the African American experience and on American history while telling the memorable story of a remarkable woman."--BOOK JACKET. ContentsList of Illustrations000Acknowledgments000Prologue000Chapter 1The Cruvelliers in Savannah000Chapter 2A Secret Trust Agreement000Chapter 3Hurricanes, Presidents, and the Death of a Matriarch000Chapter 4Black Confederates000Chapter 5Post-Civil War Savannah000Chapter 6Betrayal and Litigation000Chapter 7A Trail Indeed000Chapter 8Reversal of Fortune000Epilogue000Appendix000Notes000Selected Bibliography000Index000 Features the life and times of Aspasia Cruvellier Mirault, a free woman of color. This book presents a story that informs our understanding of the antebellum South as we watch this widowed matriarch navigate the social, economic, and political complexities to create a legacy for her family.