The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel
A Story of Marriage and Money in the Early Republic
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- £10.99
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- £10.99
Publisher Description
The notorious life and times of one of the wealthiest women in 19th-century America
Born into grinding poverty, Eliza Jumel was raised in a brothel, indentured as a servant, and confined to a workhouse when her mother was in jail. Yet by the end of her life, "Madame Jumel" was one of the richest women in New York, with servants of her own and mansions in Manhattan and Saratoga Springs. During her remarkable life, she acquired a fortune from her first husband, a French merchant, and almost lost it to her second, the notorious vice president Aaron Burr. Divorcing Burr amid lurid charges of adultery, Jumel lived on triumphantly to the age of 90, astutely managing her property and public persona. After her death, while family members extolled her virtues, claimants to her estate painted a different picture: of a prostitute, the mother of George Washington's illegitimate son, and a wife who ruthlessly defrauded her husband and perhaps even plotted his death. With this book, author Margaret A. Oppenheimer draws from archival documents and court filings, many untouched since the 1800s, to tell the true and full story of Eliza Jumel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Art historian Oppenheimer (The French Portrait) vibrantly recreates Eliza Jumel's rise from poverty to affluence, skillfully peeling away generations of rumors about this intelligent and resourceful woman. Born in Rhode Island in 1775, Betsy Bowen, as she was originally known, grew up in a brothel and was later placed into indentured servitude. After a series of family deaths, 28-year-old Betsy moved to burgeoning New York City and transformed herself into Eliza Brown, working as a stage extra. There she attracted a wealthy French merchant, Stephen Jumel, whom she married in 1804. They spent time abroad among the Parisian elite, where Eliza amassed an art collection an almost unthinkable act for a woman of the time. She returned to the U.S. alone and arranged lucrative property deals that gave her control of land rents. Soon after she was widowed, Eliza married scandal-prone former vice president Aaron Burr, divorcing him when it became clear he intended to drain her finances. Oppenheimer demonstrates a faculty for describing places, particularly New York and Paris, where Betsy took control of her life. This fascinating story could have benefited from stronger connections with early 19th-century women's history, but Oppenheimer does well in presenting a woman who should not be forgotten.
