Elizabeth Frazer Skelton facts for kids

Elizabeth Frazer Skelton (1800–1855) was a powerful businesswoman in West Africa. She was involved in trade, including the trade of enslaved people, during a time when this was common in the region. She was also known as "Mammy Skelton."

Early Life and Family Business

Elizabeth was born in 1800. Her father was John Frazer, a Scottish trader, and her mother was Phenda, an African woman. Phenda was already a successful businesswoman who managed a trading business in Africa. John Frazer managed ships that transported enslaved people to places like Charleston in South Carolina and Spanish East Florida. He also owned large farms called plantations in Florida, where enslaved people were forced to work.

Elizabeth had one brother, James, and four sisters: Margaret, Mary Ann, and Eleanor. After her father passed away, his trading business in Africa was inherited by his wife and children. However, his properties in Britain and the United States were claimed by his family in Britain. This led to a long legal fight that lasted until 1851.

Education and Marriage

Elizabeth and her two younger sisters went to the Bashia School, a mission girls' school run by Elizabeth Renner. In 1816, they traveled to Liverpool, England, to continue their education. After finishing school, they returned to Africa.

Elizabeth married William Skelton Jr., who was of Anglo-African background. He started a well-known trading company called Skelton. In 1825 or 1826, Elizabeth and William built a trading post called Victoria. It was located on the Rio Nunez river. They managed this trading post together. Victoria was a place where enslaved people were brought by canoe or over land. From there, they were sent to Portuguese Bissau. Elizabeth's sister, Mary Ann Frazer, and her husband, Thomas Gaffery Curtis, were also business partners with Elizabeth and William.

Life as a Trader

In 1843, an American trader named Enoch R. Ware met Elizabeth. He wrote that she looked very well and younger than her age. He also noted her dignity, saying she had more than most white women. He understood that her wealth came from her father's business. Elizabeth told him she had never wanted to visit the United States. This was probably because of the unfair treatment and low social status given to people of color there. She had spent four years in England, where people of color were treated almost equally to white people. Enoch R. Ware also mentioned that Elizabeth's daughters, Emma and Mary Ann, received the same kind of education as young women in Western countries.

After her husband passed away, Elizabeth took over the family business. At this time, the trade of enslaved people was officially banned by countries like Britain and the United States. However, it still continued in practice. Elizabeth became a very powerful figure in the local business world. For a while, she was responsible for half of all the goods exported from her region.

Around 1840, Britain put pressure on traders to stop the slave trade. The British West Africa Squadron patrolled the coast, trying to stop ships carrying enslaved people. Because of this, traders in the region slowly started to change their business. Instead of trading enslaved people, they began growing peanuts using forced labor. Elizabeth also became a leader in this new peanut industry. In 1851, Elizabeth was the only one of her siblings still alive. She finally received her inheritance from her father, which was worth more than one million dollars.

Elizabeth later married John Nelson Bicaise, a trader from Trinidad. Her daughter, Mary Ann, married Joseph Richmond Lightburn in 1846.

See also

• Signares, who were African businesswomen involved in trade during colonial times in West Africa.

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