The Strange Career of William Ellis: The Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaire
- ISBN-10
- 0393253864
- ISBN-13
- 9780393253863
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 352
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2016-06-13
- Publisher
- W. W. Norton & Company
- Author
- Karl Jacoby
Description
Winner of the Ray Allen Billington Prize and the Phillis Wheatley Book Award "An American 'Odyssey,' the larger-than-life story of a man who travels far in the wake of war and gets by on his adaptability and gift for gab." —Wall Street Journal A black child born on the US-Mexico border in the twilight of slavery, William Ellis inhabited a world divided along ambiguous racial lines. Adopting the name Guillermo Eliseo, he passed as Mexican, transcending racial lines to become fabulously wealthy as a Wall Street banker, diplomat, and owner of scores of mines and haciendas south of the border. In The Strange Career of William Ellis, prize-winning historian Karl Jacoby weaves an astonishing tale of cunning and scandal, offering fresh insights on the history of the Reconstruction era, the US-Mexico border, and the abiding riddle of race in America.
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