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, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. The population was 27,732 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. North Kingstow ...

. She was born to

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

and

Narragansett Indian The Narragansett people are an Algonquian American Indian tribe from Rhode Island. Today, Narragansett people are enrolled in the federally recognized Narragansett Indian Tribe. They gained federal recognition in 1983. The tribe was nearly lan ...

parents. She was a descendant of enslaved Africans who worked the plantations of

South County, Rhode Island Washington County, known locally as South County, is a county located in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,839. Rhode Island counties have no governmental functions other than as court administrativ ...

, during the eighteenth century. As a young woman, she moved to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

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 refe ...

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 an oil painter of the American Barbizon school. Born in Canada, he spent his adult life in New England in the United States. There, along with his wife Christiana Carteaux Bannist ...

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 Cambridge, Boston, and Winter 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 escaped to Canada. He established a school for African Americans before moving to Boston, Massachusetts to aid in the abolition movement. There h ...

. The family participated in Lewis' facilitation of the Boston

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

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

abolitionists Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

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!5 Rhode Islanders who laid the groundwork for later activists
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bannister, Christiana Carteaux 1819 births 1902 deaths African-American activists African-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