The Strange Career of William Ellis

Winner of the Ray Allen Billington Prize and the Phillis Wheatley Book Award "An American 'Odyssey,' the larger-than-life story of a man who travels far in the wake of war and gets by on his adaptability and gift for gab." —Wall Street Journal A black child born on the US-Mexico border in the twilight of slavery, William Ellis inhabited a world divided along ambiguous racial lines. Adopting the name Guillermo Eliseo, he passed as Mexican, transcending racial lines to become fabulously wealthy as a Wall Street banker, diplomat, and owner of scores of mines and haciendas south of the border. In The Strange Career of William Ellis, prize-winning historian Karl Jacoby weaves an astonishing tale of cunning and scandal, offering fresh insights on the history of the Reconstruction era, the US-Mexico border, and the abiding riddle of race in America.

A prize-winning historian tells a new story of the black experience in America through the life of a mysterious entrepreneur. A black child born in the twilight of slavery, William Henry Ellis inhabited a world of fraught, ambiguous racial categories on the anarchic border between the United States and Mexico. He adopted the name Guillermo Enrique Eliseo and passed as a Mexican. A shrewd businessman, he became fabulously wealthy and found himself involved in scandalous trials, unexpected disappearances and diplomatic controversies. Constantly switching identities, Eliseo identified and exploited the porousness of the colour line and the border line. In The Strange Career of William Ellis, Karl Jacoby presents an intriguing narrative set in a secret and ever-changing world—that of Reconstruction American.