It is unclear how much of Eldridge’s biography has here been romanticized (there now seems to be little available evidence regarding her career), but the story nonetheless provides an important perspective on the lives of African-American women prior to the Civil War. Also of interest is the group of women described as helping to rescue Eldridge by way of this literary endeavor, undertaken through the auspices of Green, a Rhode Island–born author, reformer, and spiritualist who went on to publish several abolitionist works.

A woodcut frontispiece, used in both volumes, depicts Eldridge in cleaning-woman guise, holding a small broom.

•   Sabin 22102. On Green, see: Dictionary of American Biography, 542. Contemporary half morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped volume information; leather moderately rubbed. Front fly-leaf of vol. I with gift inscription dated December, 1901 (“To Annie, with loving remembrances from her Father.” A few instances of light staining to pages, mostly in the second book. An attractive pair, with all edges gilt.