Additional information
by Monica Maria Tetzlaff (Author)
The story of a Yankee reformer and her life in Beaufort County, South Carolina; Born into a Massachusetts abolitionist family, Abie Holmes Christensen (1852-1938) epitomized the Yankee reformer spirit of the nineteenth century. Well educated and passionate about human rights, she moved to Beaufort, South Carolina, with her parents in 1864 as part of the Port Royal Experiment. In 1870, as a teenager, she began teaching black students. During her life she labored to educate South Carolina's African Americans, fought for women's equal participation in politics, and eventually took a role in the Socialist Party of America. Monica Maria Tetzlaff's biography of this activist reformer reveals not only the life of an intriguing individual, but also the history of the Sea Islands of South Carolina during a neglected era - from Reconstruction to the New Deal. Tetzlaff chronicles Abbie Holmes's education at Mount Holyoke College, her return to Beaufort, and her marriage in 1875 to Niels Christensen, a Danish immigrant and former captain of Colored Troops in the Union army. Tetzlaff depicts the intensity of Christensen's private and public life as the mother of six children and as a tireless
Author Biography
Monica Maria Tetzlaff is an assistant professor of history at Indiana University South Bend. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from the College of William and Mary. She lives in South Bend.
