The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel

The notorious life and times of one of the wealthiest women in 19th-century America
 
Born into grinding poverty, Eliza Jumel was raised in a brothel, indentured as a servant, and confined to a workhouse when her mother was in jail. Yet by the end of her life, “Madame Jumel” was one of the richest women in New York, with servants of her own and mansions in Manhattan and Saratoga Springs. During her remarkable life, she acquired a fortune from her first husband, a French merchant, and almost lost it to her second, the notorious vice president Aaron Burr. Divorcing Burr amid lurid charges of adultery, Jumel lived on triumphantly to the age of 90, astutely managing her property and public persona. After her death, while family members extolled her virtues, claimants to her estate painted a different picture: of a prostitute, the mother of George Washington’s illegitimate son, and a wife who ruthlessly defrauded her husband and perhaps even plotted his death. With this book, author Margaret A. Oppenheimer draws from archival documents and court filings, many untouched since the 1800s, to tell the true and full story of Eliza Jumel.

“Before Horatio Alger, there was Eliza Jumel. Her story has long been mired in mystery, scandal, innuendo, and outright fabrication. No more. Margaret Oppenheimer’s deeply researched, trans-Atlantic biography moves Eliza Jumel from the shadowy margins to the central events of turn-of-the-nineteenth-century France and the United States. The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel is just that—a remarkable work of history.” —Timothy J. Gilfoyle, professor of history, Loyola University Chicago, associate editor, Journal of Urban History

“An engaging and thoroughly researched account of the spectacular rags-to-riches rise of Eliza Jumel.” —Meryl Gordon, author of Mrs. Astor Regrets and The Phantom of Fifth Avenue

“A true story that needs no invention, The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel is a vivid narrative of the sacrifices that a woman makes as she acquires and holds onto a fortune in early America.”  —Bill Dedman, coauthor of the New York Times bestselling Empty Mansions

“Oppenheimer… vibrantly recreates Eliza Jumel’s rise from poverty to affluence, skillfully peeling away generations of rumors about this intelligent and resourceful woman.” —Publishers Weekly

“[I]deal for researchers, history fans, or general readers interested in women’s history, gender roles, or 19^th-century New York society.” —Library Journal

“Readers who thrive on stories about strong, independent women will find a kindred soul in Eliza Jumel.” —The New York Journal of Books

Margaret A. Oppenheimer holds a PhD in art history from New York University. She is a docent at New York’s Morris-Jumel Mansion and the author of The French Portrait: Revolution to Restoration. Her articles on French art have appeared in Apollo, the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, the Metropolitan Museum Journal, and other publications. She lives in New York City.