The remarkable rise of Eliza Jumel: a story of marriage and money in the early republic

Description

"Born Betsy Bowen into grinding poverty, the woman who reinvented herself as Eliza Jumel was raised in a brothel, indentured as a servant, and confined to a workhouse when her mother was in jail. By the end of her life, "Madame Jumel" was one of America's richest women, with servants of her own, an elegant mansion, a summer home in Saratoga Springs, a major art collection, and several hundred acres of land. During her remarkable rise, she obtained a fortune from her first husband, a French merchant, and nearly lost it to her second, the notorious vice president Aaron Burr. Divorcing Burr amid lurid charges of adultery, she lived on triumphantly to the age of 90, astutely managing her property and public persona. After her death, a titanic battle over her estate went all the way to the United States Supreme Court ... twice. Family members told of a woman who earned the gratitude of Napoleon I and shone at the courts of Louis XVIII and Charles X. Their opponents painted a different picture, of a prostitute who bore George Washington's illegitimate son, a wife who defrauded her husband and perhaps even plotted his death. Now Eliza Jumel's real story--so unique that it surpasses any invention--has finally been told."--;Beginnings -- A house of bad fame -- A death in the family -- The making of a merchant -- Transitions -- Reinvention -- Marriage -- Mrs. Jumel -- Bloomingdale -- The fortunes of war -- Mount Stephen -- France beckons -- An imperial interlude -- Paris -- The collector -- Separate lives -- Indecision -- Place Vendome -- The panic of 1825 -- All about money -- Deception -- The reunion -- An arranged marriage -- Enter Aaron Burr -- A calculated courtship -- An optimistic beginning -- The unraveling -- The duel -- Financial shenanigans -- The widow's mite -- A second family -- Madame Jumel -- Eliza Burr abroad -- The end of an era -- A disputed inheritance -- Proliferating pretenders -- Enter George Washington -- On the home front -- Murder most foul? Beginnings -- A house of bad fame -- A death in the family -- The making of a merchant -- Transitions -- Reinvention -- Marriage -- Mrs. Jumel -- Bloomingdale -- The fortunes of war -- Mount Stephen -- France beckons -- An imperial interlude -- Paris -- The collector -- Separate lives -- Indecision -- Place Vendome -- The panic of 1825 -- All about money -- Deception -- The reunion -- An arranged marriage -- Enter Aaron Burr -- A calculated courtship -- An optimistic beginning -- The unraveling -- The duel -- Financial shenanigans -- The widow's mite -- A second family -- Madame Jumel -- Eliza Burr abroad -- The end of an era -- A disputed inheritance -- Proliferating pretenders -- Enter George Washington -- On the home front -- Murder most foul?