Description: These letters, written in part by the daughter of Harriet Jacobs, offer profound insight into a hidden world--the private lives of genteel African American women in the late nineteenth century.
Review Quotes: "A rich and fascinating portrait of Philadelphia's and Washington D.C.'s black elite after the Civil War. Even as the letters depict the increasingly troubled political status and economic fortunes of the correspondents, they offer rare glimpses into private homes and inner emotions." --Carla L. Peterson, author of Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City