Emilie Davis


Emilie "Emily" Frances Davis was a free African-American woman living in Philadelphia during the U.S. Civil War. She wrote three pocket diaries for the years 1863, 1864, and 1865 recounting her perspective on the Emancipation Proclamation, the battle of Gettysburg, and the mourning of President Lincoln.
Davis attended the Institute for Colored Youth. She was affiliated with several black churches.

Writings

Between 1863-1864, Emilie described going out for ice cream on four separate occasions, an indication of the expanding space that black Philadelphians inhabited during the Civil War. Earlier, in the summer of 1857, Charlotte Forten and a friend had been refused service at three Philadelphia ice cream parlors before they gave up. Emilie was a member of the Ladies' Union Association of Philadelphia, that raised money and collected supplies for the U.S. Colored Troops. Ladies' Union members fought street car segregation in the city.
Davis wrote about several notable lectures and concerts she attended. On January 25, 1865, she attended a lecture by Reverend James Sella Martin, a former slave and fiery Baptist minister. On February 16, 1865, she attended a lecture by Frederick Douglass. On February 27, 1865, she attended a lecture by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. On May 11, 1964, she attended a concert by Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield. On September 14, 1865, she attended a concert by Thomas Wiggins, which was segregated and where she was required to sit in the balcony.

Marriage and family

On December 13, 1866, Emilie married George Bustill White, a barber, whose father, Jacob C. White, Sr., was a prominent black businessman. Emilie's brother-in-law was Jacob C. White, Jr., who co-founded the Philadelphia Pythians, a black baseball team, and who became principal of the all-black Roberts Vaux Junior High School. George was active in the Pennsylvania Equal Rights League, a group that lobbied successfully in Harrisburg for state support for federal civil rights amendments and for a variety of state level measures, such as integration of Philadelphia's streetcars in 1867. Emilie and George had six children, Jacob C. White, Maria, Emilie, George, Carry, and Julia. In the 1880 census, Emilie’s occupation was listed as “housekeeper.”
In later years, Emilie contributed money to her church and rented a pew under her own name.

Death

Emilie died on December 26, 1889 and was buried at Lebanon Cemetery, the burial place of Octavius Catto and other civil rights luminaries of her generation. George died on June 1, 1899.

Archives

Davis's diaries have been digitized and annotated by researchers. Davis's diaries are held at Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and page images are available online at the Pennsylvania State University and Villanova University web sites. First-person written accounts of black American women of her time are rare.