Fascinating Story of Free Woman of Color Recounted in University of Arkansas Press Book

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The Secret Trust of Aspasia Cruvellier Mirault: The Life and Trials of a Free Woman of Color in Antebellum Georgia

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In this intriguing biography set in 19th-century Savannah, Ga., Janice L. Sumler-Edmond resurrects the life and times of Aspasia Cruvellier Mirault, a free woman of color whose story was until now lost to historical memory. The Secret Trust of Aspasia Cruvellier Mirault: The Life and Trials of a Free Woman of Color in Antebellum Georgia(hardback, $29.95)is a story that informs our understanding of the antebellum South as this widowed matriarch navigates social, economic and political complexities to create a legacy for her family.

In the spring of 1842 Aspasia entered a secret trust with a white man whose help she needed to become a landowner. Sumler-Edmond’s research of Aspasia’s family and this trust arrangement, the outcome of which was determined by a dramatic three-party trial that went to the Georgia Supreme Court in 1878, provides new perspectives on the African American experience and on American history while telling the memorable story of a remarkable woman.

Diane Batts Morrow, an associate professor of history at the University of Georgia’s Institute for African American Studies, describes the book as “a valuable addition to the scholarship of the antebellum South. Through the author’s research into little known historical territory, scholars can understand better how free black people operated in a southern city.”

Janice L. Sumler-Edmond is professor of history and chair of the department of humanities and fine arts and director of the W.E.B. Dubois Honors Program at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas.