Eliza Suggs

Also found under Nonfiction, Black Writers, Writers with Disabilities

Who Was She?

Eliza Suggs was born in 1876 in Illinois to formerly enslaved parents. She grew up with osteogenesis imperfecta, which caused her bones to break very easily and frequently throughout childhood. Her condition was so severe that her parents had a funeral dress made for her when she was five years old, thinking that she would not live much longer. Suggs, however, lived to be 32 years old, and became a successful temperance lecturer. Her autobiography, Shadow & Sunshine, contains much of the little information that is known about her today. In it, she described her family, discussed her strong Christian faith, rejected suggestions that she market herself as an oddity for profit, and condemned slavery by describing the pain and humiliation enslaved people were subjected to.

What Did She Write About?

Autobiography, Slavery, Faith

Where Can I Find Her Work?

“ There have been persons who would say to my mother, “Why don’t you take her to the show or museum? That wouldn’t be any harm and you could make your living easily.’ . . .

But, dear reader, God did not create me for this purpose. He created me for His glory, and if I can be a help to any one, and if God can get glory to His name out of my life, amen! To this end shall I live.”