Christiana Carteaux Bannister was a Black female entrepreneur when they were uncommon. She learned hairdressing and wig making and made a successful career. But that wasn’t enough for Christiana. She supported her up-and-coming artist husband and was an activist, an abolitionist, an advocate and fund-raiser for African American Civil War soldiers, and provided a place for aged and homeless colored women. Her contributions have nearly faded from history. Fortunately, she’s not entirely forgotten.
Early Life
Her birth year is between 1820 and 1822; the month and day remain a mystery. Most resources say she was born in Rhode Island’s South County. One more specific source said her birthplace was in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
Bannister genealogy says that according to census reports, her parents were James and Mary Babcock, though most sources say simply that one of them was an African and the other a Narragansett Native American (an Algonquian-speaking people and the original inhabitants of Rhode Island).
Were her African grandparents slaves?
Most likely. However, Rhode Island passed the Gradual Emancipation Act in 1784, which said children born to enslaved women after March 1, 1784, would be freed upon reaching adulthood (age 18 for females and 21 for males). That meant at least one of her parents probably served as indentured for their childhood, but were free once they were adults and had children of their own.
She had a brother named Charles and a sister named Maritcha. Little else is known about her childhood.
Early Training
By the 1830s, people like William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman led the abolitionist movement and started the Underground Railroad. Events that likely influenced school-aged Christiana.
Then her older brother, Charles, married Cecelia Remond of Salem, Massachusetts. Her family ran several businesses, including a hair salon and a large wig factory. The family was also a leader in the abolitionist movement. Charles Lenox Remond appeared on lecture tours starring William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, among others. One assumes, as part of the Remond family, Christiana met these gentlemen
Christiana and her sister, alongside her sister-in-law, Cecelia, and her sister, ran the Ladies Hair Work Salon in Salem. This is most likely where she learned her trade.
Marriage
Christiana moved from Rhode Island to Boston, Massachusetts, and began a career as a wigmaker. She opened a salon on Washington Street in Boston in 1847.
In the late 1840s, she married Destine Carteaux, a clothing and cigar dealer of probable Caribbean origin. Christiana continued making wigs and styling hair. By 1850, the two had separated. Christiana lived with friends in Providence.
Career
Christiana opened more salons.
She called herself Madam Carteaux and advertised her business in William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. Christiana advertised she was a women’s hairdresser and wigmaker, a “hair doctress.” She offered multiple hair care services, including hair dyeing and selling a hair restorative treatment.
Second Marriage
In 1853, Canadian-born Edward Mitchell Bannister (November 2, 1828-January 9, 1901) applied for a barber shop job in one of her salons. She hired him.
A new train running between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island allowed her to open a salon in Providence and continue to operate her salons in Boston.
She married Edward Bannister on June 10, 1857. A short time later, Edward left his job at the salon to pursue his dream of becoming an artist.
The Bannisters lived and worked with Lewis Hayden and took part in the Boston Underground Railroad.
The Civil War
On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began.
Christiana joined the Boston Colored Ladies Sanitary Commission. The Commission collected donations for the sick and wounded Union troops, in particular the African American troops, the 54th (immortalized in the film Glory) and the 55th Massachusetts regiments, and the 5th Massachusetts Calvary. She advocated for equal pay for those soldiers who served for a year and a half without pay rather than accept less than a white soldier’s pay.
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation.
Christiana and Frederick Douglass presented the Commission’s colors to the African American soldiers of the 54th Regiment in 1863.
In November 1864, she organized a fair sponsored by the Commission. The fair collected supplies and raised money to benefit those soldiers.
The war ended on April 9, 1865.
Post-War
Meanwhile, Christiana continued running her salons. In Providence, she was a well-known patron of the arts. She also held fundraisers to benefit widows and orphans of African American soldiers killed during the Civil War.
In 1869, the Bannisters moved to Providence. Christiana continued managing her salons in Boston and Providence. Her hair salons were a popular meeting place for Black and white abolitionists.
Records show Christiana closed her shops in 1871. No reason was recorded.
Edward’s Rising Star
Edward gained national recognition as an oil painter after he won first prize at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition for his painting, Under the Oaks. He was the first African American to win a national art award. He had trouble collecting his prize because he was Black until he identified himself as the artist of the winning painting.
Edward became one of the most successful Black artists of that time period. He became a founding member of the Providence Art Club and the Rhode Island School of Design. Edward attributed his success to Christiana’s emotional and financial support and is known for his landscapes and seascapes.
The Home for Aged Colored Women
In Providence, Christiana learned that African American women who worked as domestics but grew too old to work often struggled and became homeless. She founded the Home for Aged Colored Women at 45 East Transit Street. It opened in 1890. She supported the facility by soliciting donations and serving as a member of the staff.
The home moved to Dodge Street, and they renamed it Bannister Nursing Care Center. (Today it’s called the Bannister Center.)
Last Years and Death
Edward
By the late 1890s, Edward’s style of landscape painting had fallen out of favor. Money grew scarce. He closed his studio in 1898, and he and Christiana moved to Boston for a year before returning to a smaller home on Wilson Street, Providence, in 1900. Edward died of a heart attack on January 9, 1901, during evening prayer service at his church. He was seventy-two.
They laid him to rest in the North Burial Ground in Providence, under a stone monument designed by artist Mahler B. Ryder.
Christiana
Christiana went to live in her Home for Aged Colored Women in September 1902. Possibly having dementia, they transferred her to a state mental institution in Cranston. She died on December 29, 1902. She was in her early 80s.
They buried her next to her husband. Her name did not appear on the large gravestone erected in her husband’s honor.
Legacy
In 2002, the Rhode Island State House unveiled a bronze sculpture bust of Christian. The following year, she was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
A Providence City Council committee unanimously voted to rename Magee Street (named after a Rhode Island slave trader) to Bannister Street, in honor of Edward and Christiana Bannister, in September 2017.
Thoughts About Christiana
Christiana isn’t someone who left a wide trail of evidence behind her. She isn’t someone who accomplished things of national consequence. But she is a woman who accomplished great things by herself and for her family and her community. She was an everyday hero. One we should never forget.
It’s Women’s History Month. What, if any, women’s history did you learn in school?
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References
Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame
Image Credits
Featured image: Portrait of Christiana Careaux Bannister by Edward Mitchell Bannister, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Second Image: Oak Trees by Edward Mitchell Bannister, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Final Image: Rdb8888, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
