The Strange Career of William Ellis Audiobook by Karl Jacoby

https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/38/ to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Strange Career of William Ellis Subtitle: The Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaire Author: Karl Jacoby Narrator: JD Jackson Format: Unabridged Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins Language: English Release date: 06-07-16 Publisher: Tantor Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 18 votes Genres: History, 20th Century Publisher's Summary: To his contemporaries in Gilded Age Manhattan, Guillermo Eliseo was a fantastically wealthy Mexican, the proud owner of a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park, a busy Wall Street office, and scores of mines and haciendas in Mexico. But for all his obvious riches and his elegant appearance, Eliseo was also the possessor of a devastating secret: He was not, in fact, from Mexico at all. Rather, he had begun life as a slave named William Ellis, born on a cotton plantation in Texas during the waning years of King Cotton. After emancipation, Ellis, capitalizing on the Spanish he learned during his childhood along the Mexican border and his ambiguous appearance, engaged in a virtuoso act of reinvention. He crafted an alter ego, the Mexican Guillermo Eliseo, who was able to access many of the privileges denied to African Americans at the time. The Strange Career of William Ellis offers fresh insights on the history of the Reconstruction era, the US-Mexico border, and the abiding riddle of race. At a time when the United States is deepening its connections with Latin America and recognizing that race is more than simply black or white, Ellis' story could not be more timely or important. Critic Reviews: "Readers will gain fresh insight into life during Reconstruction as well as the riddle of racial identities." (Library Journal)