Christiana Carteaux Bannister (; 1819–1902) was an American business entrepreneur, hairdresser, and abolitionist in New England. She was known professionally as Madame Carteaux. Christiana was married to successful artist Edward Mitchell Bannister, who she supported financially during the early stages of his career. While Christiana's legacy has been overlooked in the past, coverage of her work in popular sources during the late 2010s has brought new attention to her success and political efforts.

Biography

Christiana Carteaux Bannister was born in 1819 in

North Kingstown, Rhode Island North Kingstown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. Its population was 27,732 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. North Kingstown is the birthplace of American ...

. She was born to

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

and Narragansett Indian parents. She was a descendant of enslaved Africans who worked the plantations of South County, Rhode Island, during the eighteenth century. As a young woman, she moved to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

where she worked as a wigmaker and

hairdresser A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A hairdresser may also be re ...

Marriages

Christiana appears in the 1846 Boston directory listed as a milliner. Records also state that she had married Desiline Carteaux, a clothes dealer and cigar maker. Her marriage to Carteaux, who is believed to be of Caribbean origin, did not last. The two lived on Beacon Hill in Boston, but by 1850 they separated and Christiana lived with friends in Providence. In 1853 Christiana and

Edward Mitchell Bannister Edward Mitchell Bannister (November 2, 1828January 9, 1901) was a Canadian–American oil painter of the American Barbizon school. Born in colonial New Brunswick, he spent his adult life in New England in the United States. There, along with h ...

met when he applied for work as a barber in her Boston salon. She and Bannister married on June 10, 1857. Bannister became one of the most successful Black artists because of Christiana Carteaux Bannister's financial and emotional support. He attributed much of his success to Christiana for her critical eye and her business sense. In 1869, the Bannisters moved to Providence, Rhode Island, and Christiana continued her business as a hairdresser as well as her activism.

Hairdressing business

As a young woman, Christiana moved from Rhode Island to Boston where she began her career as a wigmaker. She was professionally known as Madame Carteaux, Women's Hairdresser and Wigmaker. She was a successful business entrepreneur, and self-styled "hair doctress," generating income by hairdressing and selling her own hair products. From 1847 to 1871 Christiana Carteaux Bannister maintained several salons in Boston including on Cambridge,

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, and

Winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Dif ...

Streets. When Christiana Carteaux Bannister and Edward Bannister moved to Providence, she opened another salon in Providence.

Abolitionists

While in Boston, the Bannisters lived and worked with abolitionist

Lewis Hayden Lewis Hayden (December 2, 1811 – April 7, 1889) escaped slavery in Kentucky with his family and reached Canada. He established a school for African Americans before moving to Boston, Massachusetts. There he became an Abolitionism in the United ...

. The family participated in Lewis' facilitation of the Boston

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

, and providing their hair salons as meeting places for African American and white

abolitionists Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. T ...

Other activism

During the Civil War, Christiana Carteaux Bannister was an advocate for equal pay for Black soldiers. In November 1864, she organized a fair sponsored by the Boston Colored Ladies Sanitary Commission to benefit the African American regiments, the 54th and 55th Massachusetts and the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry, who served for a year and a half without pay rather than accept less than the white soldiers were paid. In Providence, she founded the Home for Aged Colored Women when she learned about the struggles of African American women who worked as domestics but were too old to work and often became homeless. The home moved from Transit St. to Dodge St. and was renamed Bannister House, Inc.

Death and legacy

Despite her success throughout her professional life, Bannister died with little money in January 1903. Though she was admitted into the Home for Aged Colored Women in September 1902, Bannister reportedly lived with mental illness and was transferred to the Howard Asylum, Lancaster reported. Upon her death, she was laid to rest next to her husband, who died in January 1901 during a church prayer meeting, without a grave marker. Many years after her death, she began to receive more public recognition for her contributions to society and Black history. Bannister was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2003, and a bronze bust of her, based upon a portrait Edward painted, was placed in the Rhode Island State House in December 2002.

References

External links

World Black History!
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archived from original 21 October 2021
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bannister, Christiana Carteaux 1819 births 1902 deaths African-American activists African-American abolitionists American abolitionists Native American activists African-American businesspeople African-American women in business People from North Kingstown, Rhode Island People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War 19th-century American businesswomen 19th-century American businesspeople Burials at North Burying Ground (Providence) 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women 19th-century Native American women 19th-century Native American people American hairdressers