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| birth_name =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{circa|1760}}
| birth_date = {{circa|1760}}
| birth_place = Haiti
| birth_place = [[Calcutta, India]]
| death_date = {{circa|1832}}
| death_date = {{circa|1832}}
| death_place = [[Philadelphia, United States]]
| death_place = [[Philadelphia, United States]]
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[[File:Map_of_Hispaniola.JPG|thumb|right| French map of [[Saint-Domingue]] ]]
[[File:Map_of_Hispaniola.JPG|thumb|right| French map of [[Saint-Domingue]] ]]


Little is known about Emmons's early life. The oral history is she was a Haitian, born in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]], who traveled to [[Saint-Domingue]] (modern day [[Haiti]]) where she then lived and worked.<ref name=wsj /> While there, she changed her original Indian name to Eugénie Beauharnais, Beauharnais being a name shared by several other families in Haiti at the time.<ref name=princeton /> She originally immigrated to the [[Thirteen Colonies]] as a servant of [[Theodosia Prevost]] and her first husband, [[Jacques Marcus Prevost]], a British military officer who was stationed in the [[West Indies]] in the early 1770s.<ref name=wapo /> She changed her name to Mary Emmons upon entering the United States.<ref name=princeton />
Slavery in India continued through the 18th and 19th centuries. The Portuguese imported Africans into their Indian colonies on the Konkan coast between about 1530 and 1740<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Carole |title=Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=554 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Encyclopedia_of_the_African_Diaspora_Ori/nkVxNVvex-sC?hl=en&gbpv=0}}</ref>. Little is known about Emmons's early life. The oral history is she was a Haitian, born in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]], who traveled to [[Saint-Domingue]] (modern day [[Haiti]]) where she then lived and worked.<ref name=wsj /> While in Haiti, she changed her original Indian name to Eugénie Beauharnais, Beauharnais being a name shared by several other families in Haiti at the time.<ref name=princeton /> She originally immigrated to the [[Thirteen Colonies]] as a servant of [[Theodosia Prevost]] and her first husband, [[Jacques Marcus Prevost]], a British military officer who was stationed in the [[West Indies]] in the early 1770s.<ref name=wapo /> She changed her name to Mary Emmons upon entering the United States.<ref name=princeton />


After Theodosia married Burr in 1782 (following her husband's death), Emmons entered the Burr household in New York.<ref name=wapo>{{Cite news|last=Natanson|first=Hannah|title=Aaron Burr — villain of 'Hamilton' — had a secret family of color, new research shows|language=en-US|work=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/08/24/aaron-burr-villain-hamilton-had-secret-family-color-new-research-shows/|access-date=2020-09-25|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> Emmons's first child with Burr was [[Louisa Charlotte Burr]], born in 1788. In 1792, Emmons gave birth to her second child with Burr, [[John Pierre Burr]], at sea while she was travelling back to the United States after a visit to Haiti.<ref name=princeton />
After Theodosia married Burr in 1782 (following her husband's death), Emmons entered the Burr household in New York.<ref name=wapo>{{Cite news|last=Natanson|first=Hannah|title=Aaron Burr — villain of 'Hamilton' — had a secret family of color, new research shows|language=en-US|work=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/08/24/aaron-burr-villain-hamilton-had-secret-family-color-new-research-shows/|access-date=2020-09-25|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> Emmons's first child with Burr was [[Louisa Charlotte Burr]], born in 1788. In 1792, Emmons gave birth to her second child with Burr, [[John Pierre Burr]], at sea while she was travelling back to the United States after a visit to Haiti.<ref name=princeton />

Revision as of 23:23, 28 February 2022

Mary Emmons
Bornc. 1760
Calcutta, India
Diedc. 1832
Philadelphia, United States
Children

Mary Emmons (c. 1760 – c. 1832), also known as Eugénie Beauharnais,[1][2] was a Haitian[3] woman born in Calcutta who worked as a servant in the household of Theodosia Bartow Prevost. While working as a servant, she had a relationship with Theodosia's second husband, American Founding Father and Vice President Aaron Burr, by whom she had two children: a daughter, Louisa Charlotte, born 1788, and a son, John Pierre Burr, born 1792.[4]


Biography

French map of Saint-Domingue

Slavery in India continued through the 18th and 19th centuries. The Portuguese imported Africans into their Indian colonies on the Konkan coast between about 1530 and 1740[5]. Little is known about Emmons's early life. The oral history is she was a Haitian, born in Calcutta, who traveled to Saint-Domingue (modern day Haiti) where she then lived and worked.[4] While in Haiti, she changed her original Indian name to Eugénie Beauharnais, Beauharnais being a name shared by several other families in Haiti at the time.[2] She originally immigrated to the Thirteen Colonies as a servant of Theodosia Prevost and her first husband, Jacques Marcus Prevost, a British military officer who was stationed in the West Indies in the early 1770s.[6] She changed her name to Mary Emmons upon entering the United States.[2]

After Theodosia married Burr in 1782 (following her husband's death), Emmons entered the Burr household in New York.[6] Emmons's first child with Burr was Louisa Charlotte Burr, born in 1788. In 1792, Emmons gave birth to her second child with Burr, John Pierre Burr, at sea while she was travelling back to the United States after a visit to Haiti.[2]

While raising her two children, Emmons resided in Philadelphia, at the home where Burr stayed while serving in the U.S. Senate – while his wife Theodosia still lived in New York.[2][7] The fact that both Theodosia and Emmons gave birth in 1788 shows that Burr was having intimate relations with both women at the same time.

Emmons died in Philadelphia in 1832.

Children

John Pierre Burr, one of Emmons's children

Emmons's daughter Louisa Charlotte married Francis Webb, a free black man in Pennsylvania, and was the mother of Frank J. Webb, an American novelist who wrote The Garies and Their Friends (1857), the second novel by an African American to be published.

Emmons's son, John Pierre Burr, married Hester (Hetty) Elizabeth Emery and was very active in the abolitionist movement. An organizer of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, John Pierre operated a barbershop that became a station on the Underground Railroad.[8]

The death certificate of Emmons's daughter, Louisa Charlotte Burr

Aaron Burr never acknowledged the fact that he had a relationship or children with Emmons during his lifetime – nor did he mention his children with Emmons in his will, even though he did mention two of his other illegitimate children in it.[9] Additionally, the death certificates of both Louisa Ann and John Pierre both leave the slots for "Mother" and "Father" blank.[10][6] However, according to a descendant of Burr and Emmons, historian Dr. Allen Ballard, Emmons married Burr shortly after his first wife Theodosia's death, which would have legitimized their two children.[2]

Legacy

As Emmons was never publicly acknowledged by Aaron Burr in his lifetime, the fact of their relationship was unknown to historians and passed down as oral history throughout Emmons's descendants. One descendant, "Aunt Doll", even had a marriage certificate showing that Burr and Emmons were married, but destroyed it in frustration because of other relatives' lack of interest in the family history.[4][2]

In 2005, Louella Burr Mitchell Allen notified the Aaron Burr Association that she was related to Aaron Burr and presented family documents and oral histories describing Emmons and her descendants. Although there was no opportunity at the time for DNA testing, members of the Aaron Burr Association embraced Allen as family and invited her to speak at an Association meeting about the oral history she had.[4]

In 2019, Sherri Burr, another descendant of Emmons, found more conclusive evidence of Emmons's relationship, including a letter sent from Lucia Charlotte Burr to Aaron Burr, DNA testing evidence, and a property deed involving a plot of land that Aaron Burr bought for his son John Pierre. The Aaron Burr Association then formally recognized Emmons's son John Pierre Burr as a son of Aaron Burr and installed a new headstone declaring his ancestry at his grave.[6] Stuart Fisk Johnson, the president of the Association at the time, commented, "A few people didn’t want to go into it because Aaron’s first wife, Theodosia, was still alive, and dying of cancer [when Aaron fathered John Pierre] ... But the embarrassment is not as important as it is to acknowledge and embrace actual living, robust, accomplished children."[11]

Family tree

Descendants of Mary Emmons and Aaron Burr[12]
Mary Emmons
1760–1832		Aaron Burr
1756–1836
Hetty Emery
1795-?		John Pierre Burr
1792–1864		Louisa Charlotte Burr
1784–1878		Francis Webb
1788–1829
Ann A. Webb
1820–1884		Elizabeth S. Webb
1818–1888		John G. Webb
1823–1904		Frank J. Webb
1828–1894

In 2013, artist Camilla Huey included a portrait of Emmons as part of nine corset portraits of women in Aaron Burr’s life in the exhibition "The Loves of Aaron Burr: Portraits in Corsetry & Binding."[13][14][15]

The 2019 novel The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr by Susan Holloway Scott is a fictional account of Emmons's life. Scott writes that because so little was known about Emmons, she took the liberty of creating imagined details of her life herself.[16]

References

  1. ^ Ballard, Allen B. (2011-09-29). One More Day's Journey: The Story of a Family and a People. iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-4620-5283-7.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Burr, Sherri. "Aaron Burr Jr. and John Pierre Burr: A Founding Father and his Abolitionist Son". slavery.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  3. ^ Wilson, Joseph. The Elite of Our People. p. 123. ISBN 9780271043029, 0271043024. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  4. ^ a b c d Ip, Greg (2005-10-05). "Fans of Aaron Burr Find Unlikely Ally In a 'New' Relative". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-09-25.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Davies, Carole. Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora. ABC-CLIO. p. 554.
  6. ^ a b c d Natanson, Hannah. "Aaron Burr — villain of 'Hamilton' — had a secret family of color, new research shows". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  7. ^ Isenberg 2007, p. 124.
  8. ^ Ballard, Allen B. (2011-09-29). One More Day's Journey: The Story of a Family and a People. iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-4620-5283-7.
  9. ^ Oppenheimer 2015, p. 165–169; Stillwell 1928, p. 66.
  10. ^ "Discovering Louisa Charlotte Burr: Abolitionist, Mother, and Unsung Hero". Hidden City Philadelphia. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  11. ^ Natanson, Hannah. "Aaron Burr — villain of 'Hamilton' — had a secret family of color, new research shows". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  12. ^ Maillard, Mary (2013). ""Faithfully Drawn from Real Life": Autobiographical Elements in Frank J. Webb's The Garies and Their Friends". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 137 (3): 261–300. doi:10.5215/pennmaghistbio.137.3.0261. ISSN 0031-4587. JSTOR 10.5215/pennmaghistbio.137.3.0261.
  13. ^ "Mary Emmons". Camilla Huey Artworks. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  14. ^ "Oprah's Corset-Maker Tries Her Hand at History". The Cut. 2013-04-25. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  15. ^ "The Ties That Bind: Our Q&A with Artist-Designer Camilla Huey - NewsWhistle". Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  16. ^ "Recovering a Heroine That History Erased". Susan Holloway Scott, Bestselling Historical Fiction Author. Retrieved 2020-09-25.

Bibliography

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