Emilie F. Davis, Her Life, In Her Own Words: Analyzing the 1863-1865 Diaries of a Freeborn Colored Woman

FAIN: FT-57540-10

Karsonya Eugenia Wise Whitehead
Loyola University Maryland (Baltimore, MD 21210-2601)

Emilie F. Davis, Her Life, In Her Own Words is a book project that examines the life and experiences of Emilie F. Davis, a freeborn 21-year-old mulatto woman, through an intense reading of her three antebellum pocket diaries. From January 1, 1863 to December 31, 1865, Emilie wrote and recorded her feelings and experiences. Her diary entries provide insight into what was happening within the free black Philadelphia community during this time. Emilie mentioned all of the major events in her pocket diaries along with her personal joys and pains, including her father's ongoing illness, her pastor's very public and messy divorce, her trips in and around the city, and the deaths of her friends and family members. Emilie wrote every day, at least for the 1,095 days that have survived into the present, and perhaps even longer than we know. In the process, she wrote herself into America's history.

Associated Products

The 1863-1865 Pocket Diaries of Emilie Davis: Her Life, In Her Own Words (Book)
Title: The 1863-1865 Pocket Diaries of Emilie Davis: Her Life, In Her Own Words
Author: Kaye Wise Whitehead
Editor: Alex Moore
Abstract: Emilie F. Davis, Her Life, In Her Own Words examines the life and experiences of Emilie F. Davis, a freeborn 21-year old mulatto woman, through an intense reading of her three antebellum pocket diaries. From January 1, 1863 to December 31, 1865, Emilie wrote and recorded her feelings and experiences. Her diary entries provide insight into what was happening within the free black Philadelphia community on the days when: free black men in Philadelphia were drafted, Ward-by-Ward, into the armed service; Frederick Douglass issued his 1863 “Call to Arms” and the abolitionist singing group, The Hutchinson Family, hosted a neighborhood concert; confederate soldiers invaded Vicksburg, Pennsylvania; General Robert F. Lee surrendered; President Lincoln was assassinated and his casket traveled through downtown Philadelphia; the Emancipation Proclamation was released; and, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. Emilie mentioned all of these events in her pocket diaries along with her personal joys and pains, including her father’s ongoing illness, her pastor’s very public and messy divorce, her trips in and around the city, and the deaths of friends, church members, her sister-in-law, her nephew, and finally, her brother. Emilie wrote every day, at least for the 1,095 days that have survived into the present, and perhaps even longer than we know. In the process she wrote herself into America’s history.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://kayewisewhitehead.com/
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Type: Single author monograph

“From Emancipation to Freedom: The 1863-1865 Pocket Diaries of Emilie F. Davis.” (Article)
Title: “From Emancipation to Freedom: The 1863-1865 Pocket Diaries of Emilie F. Davis.”
Author: Kaye Wise Whitehead
Abstract: This paper examines the 1863-1865 pocket diaries of Emilie F. Davis, a freeborn black woman. Her daily entries are used as a starting point to investigate, explore, and examine Emlie’s place within the free black community, her worldviews and her politics, her perceptions of both public and private events, and her personal relationships. As a historical artifact, Emlie’s pocket diaries provide a skeleton blueprint of her life that outlines her mobile subjectivity, particularly in relation to the people, incidents, and ideologies that shaped and formed her identity.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.5215/pennmaghistbio.135.4.0561?uid=3739704&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=56242935463
Secondary URL: http://loyola.academia.edu/KayeWiseWhitehead/Papers/1089253/edit
Access Model: subscription only
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
Publisher: Historical Society of PA

Expanding the Private and the Public: Analyzing the Writing Practices of Nineteenth-Century Black Women (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Expanding the Private and the Public: Analyzing the Writing Practices of Nineteenth-Century Black Women
Author: Kaye Wise Whitehead
Abstract: A lesson plan by Kaye Wise Whitehead (Loyola University Maryland) discusses the Philadelphia seamstress Emilie Davis, whose diaries are one of only four known unpublished primary sources written by a free black woman during the nineteenth century.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.oxfordaasc.com/content/lesson_plans/lesson_plan_9.jsp
Access Model: open access

Philadelphia: The Great Experiment. (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Philadelphia: The Great Experiment.
Writer: Phil Katz
Director: Sam Katz
Producer: Sam Katz
Abstract: A 30-minute documentary on the history of Philadelphia. Emilie Davis is discussed during the section on Abraham Lincoln and the free black community.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.historyofphilly.com/media.html
Access Model: purchase only
Format: Film

Notes from a Colored Girl The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis (Book)
Title: Notes from a Colored Girl The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis
Author: Karsonya Wise Whitehead
Abstract: This book seeks to tell the story of one woman's life through an intensive reading of her pocket diaries from 1863 to 1865. It is easy to overlook the life of Emilie F. Davis, a freeborn woman who worked as both a domestic and a modiste (a dressmaker), as her name is unknown; her contributions to history are undetermined; and outside of her pocket diaries the details of her life would not exist.
Year: 2014
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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