Eunice Connolly (December 9, 1831 – September 27, 1877) was an American woman born into pre-Civil War-New England, who left a correspondence archive detailing her life during the period.
Hoping for a better life, they moved to Mobile, Alabama, but when the Civil War broke out and her husband joined the Confederacy, Eunice returned to New England.
Learning after the war ended that he had died, Connolly decided to marry a "coloured" British West Indian sailor and move with him to the Cayman Islands.
The letters she left, give a glimpse into the struggles of working class life during the period of industrialization and the war, as well as the differences in racial attitudes of American and Caribbean societies.
[12] Initially upon their arrival, the family boarded with William's sister and brother-in-law, Ellen and Dudley Merrill, soon establishing their own residence in Mobile.
[16] She arrived in Claremont, New Hampshire, with expectations that her husband's family would provide for her and her son, as well as her daughter, Clara, who would be born within two months of her return northward.
She also made extra money by braiding palm leaf hats[18] and was eventually able to move the children into a tenement building living on their own.
[19] Without education, and with children being barred from mill dormitories and domestic living situations, Stone's remaining choice was to take in washing and take Clara with her to housekeeping jobs,[20] though societal norms called into question the respectability of women engaged in such work.
[43] In the West Indies, though Smiley was mixed race, the social hierarchy placed "coloured" closer to white, the opposite of in the United States, where "mulattos" were considered black.
[50] Historian Martha Hodes discovered Eunice's correspondence while conducting research among her mother's papers at the Duke University Library.
The letters capture the fragility and volatility of life in the era[51] and show that Connolly was able to challenge convention by improving her social standing when she married a black man.