Elleanor Eldridge was born on this date in 1785. She was a Black entrepreneur.
Eldridge was from Warwick, RI, the youngest of seven daughters and two sons born to Hannah and Robin Eldridge. Her father and two uncles, African slaves brought to Rhode Island, earned their freedom by fighting in the American Revolutionary War. They had been promised 200 acres of land in New York.
Instead, they were given a worthless sum; her father eventually saved enough to purchase a small parcel of land and build a home in Warwick. Her mother, part Native American, died when she was 10. Much to her father’s disdain, young Eldridge began washing clothes as a live-in servant for the Baker family of Warwick, one of her mother’s former clients.
https://aaregistry.org/story/elleanor-eldridge-businesswoman-amid-oppression/
Help preserve & share the history of Jamestown, RI. Maintain the Museum, the Windmill, the Meetinghouse and the Conanicut Battery. Preserve the Society’s collection of documents, photographs and artifacts.
Sign up if you do not want to become a member at this time, but would like to receive the JHS public announcements, articles, and news updates. Members do not need to sign up here as they will automatically receive all this and invitations to members-only events as well when they join. The JHS will never share the email addresses in our database.
The Jamestown
Historical Society
PO Box 156
Jamestown, RI
02835