African American Women Disabled Americans Poetry Autobiography Nebraska For Sale

 heavily worn with patches of boards threadbare; heavily shaken but holding; front is warped

This is an autobiography, family history and small collection of poetry written by Eliza Suggs. Most of what we know of Suggs comes from this book including the fact that she was born in Bureau, Illinois in 1876 to parents who had been enslaved. Although healthy at birth, at around four weeks old, Eliza's bones started breaking with the gentlest of moves. It turned out that she had osteogenesis imperfecta, a group of genetic disorders that all result in bones that break easily.

After short introductions by others, Eliza began with a biography of her father which included a little about his enslavement as well as his emancipation, service in the Civil War and marriage to her mother. She also discussed his post-war work as a preacher, his mistaken arrest for murder and his temperance work. His biography is followed by a longer profile of her mother, with most of it focusing on her mother's enslavement.

Fifteen pages are devoted to Eliza's autobiography where we learn about her religious faith and how she was repeatedly encouraged to join the circus or sideshows because of her condition. She also shared that she was taught to read by her sisters and she later attended classes taught by her sister Sarah in a one-room school in the family home. After moving to Orleans, Nebraska, Suggs was offered a scholarship to attend the seminary there in 1889. To reach each day's classes, she was wheeled to school in a donated chair, carried up the steps, and wheeled to her desk.

The rest of the book includes another section on slavery by Eliza as well as a reprinting of the poem “The Octaroon.” The last few pages hold three original poems by Eliza and there are also five other plates in addition to Eliza's photographic portrait frontis. These include a portrait of Eliza as a fifteen year old as well as individual portraits of both her mother and father. The other two are group portraits of other members of the Suggs family, including four of Eliza's sisters.

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