The exciting new book the strange career of William Ellis the texas slave who became a millionaire is so important. The university in new york where he lives with his wife and son. The work which includes the previous books develops the carefully crafted details to address the largest issues in American History and shaping human cover relationships. It brings to life an elusive figure known as w. H. Ellis. It strips away the layers surrounding ellis revealing a long ignored history of slavery and emancipation of racial mixing and segregation. The National Boundaries that rendered mexico and the United States and several elements of a shared north American History so please join me in welcoming carl jacoby. [applause] i thought id give a very brief overview about the book and i wanted to read a short excerpt for you and then we will have a short conversation up here and we wanted to get some questions from the audience if that sounds okay with everyone. It jeff Columbia University and it is a pleasure for me to get outside of the classroom and be at a book festival at this one particularly because i think of history as literature i think it can be told in a creative sort of way and i think about the book i wrote here although it technically is a history i like to think about i of as a nonficn novel. It is to tell a true story and we need to think about what makes it true and the story aspects that draw people into the lessons we are trying to impart from the past. In my book the subtitle in many respects gives away the plot of the book. Its called the texas slave became a mexican millionaire and its about William Henry ellis who was born in a small texas town not far from here, victoria texas which some of you may know. He has a an office here in the plaza but along the way then he moves on to new york city and along the way he ends up changing himself from William Henry ellis to this character everyone thinks of as an incredibly wealthy mexican from mexico city. He remains one of the most prestigious avenues overlooking central park as the name would imply and he has an office on wall street and its right next to jpmorgan as an investment banker of that particular time period, so he is in the seat of power during that time period. He is i like to think of him as a reallife great gatsby. Hes this person from the sort of smalltown who comes to new york and reinvents himself. So if you think about it, hes a selfmade man in two senses of the word coming in the sense that he went from rags born into slavery and eventually is able to become quite wealthy and lives in a sort of most prestigious address in new york city. Hes selfmade in 19 recreates the image of himself durin themg this time from someone who is seen as africanamerican to someone who has been seen by most as mexican. So in many respects, this is a story about a racial masquerade and this is a standard element of most novels of the renaissance. All thalthough novels from the g which is about the issue of passing or James Johnsons novel the autobiography this is a common theme in a lot of fiction from the early 20th century i was wondering why historians because there is almost no history of racial passing and i thought why is it that there are no history is about this when fiction writers are talking about it so much and then of course i tried to research it and now i know why. The paradox of giving a history likdoing a historylike this is g to write the life story of someone trying to hide the life story. So its not like George Washington where you collect all the papers and theres a big library and you can go and find everything. This really was a Treasure Hunt or detective story in terms of finding out all the background about him. As a novelist you can fill in all of the sort of missing pieces and use your imagination of course as a historian i am not allowed to do that. And it took me about ten years to write this book because i had to do so much searching to find these pieces of evidence and put them together in the story that im sharing with you. One of the key parts in terms of making the book a reality was tracking down some of the family members, and i was eventually able to do this with family members who were from victoria and then as a part of the great migration moved west to los angeles. And then other parts of his family which had gone down and moved to mexico, the ending part of the book is the two branches have on touch with one another. When i finally contacted them i was able to put them back together so the book is basically a transnational Family Reunion that have been out of touch for some 75 years and come back and get to be reacquainted with one another. I want to read an excerpt from the book to set the scene for you a little bit takes place on a train going from mexico city to new torque city new york city during this time period into the time they talk about is what happens when you cross the border from mexico into texas. Texas of course in 1909 had segregation in all aspects of life to try to keep the socalled races separate from one another. It means that the border now as a question wathe question was at identity. To figure out who is this person and where am i going to categorize them because of the process of just traveling a few feet from one side of the border to the other. A few other details to make the excerpt makes sense the border on the other side would be the town of eagle pass. Texas and the train itself is the aztec limit. That should be enough to get you through mostly read a short excerpt for you. Aboard the aztec limited, crossing the border was a once routine and momentous. After the journey that trained the vehicle crossed the bridge the rio grande pulled into the veto in the eastern edge of eagle pass, the agents of the recently created department of commerce and labor past the uniforms and climbed aboard to inspect luggage. There were narcotics like heroin, marijuana and cocaine all legal in 1909 but instead the era of no federal income tax the federal government raised oodles of its revenue to the luxury such as race, so, jewels, watches and cigars. Next it spoke volumes as to the borderthebarber school in estabg borders rule in establishing personal identity as well as National Territory the agents compiled the port of inspection on all incoming passengers. Detailing each arrivals name, place of birth, occupation and final destination. The United States wouldnt require passports until 1914. On the ordinary passenger trains the exercise particular vigilance against chinese or japanese laborers who in an effort to evade the United States restrictions disguise themselves as mexicans as well as the possessors of more dangerous diseases. But on a luxury train like the aztec limited, catering to the welltodo businessman and upperclass tourists, agents more often than not to individual declarations of identity at face value. On the morning of march 14, 1909, however, a tall man with brown eyes retired the latest fashion eighth tailored threepiece suit, gold watch chain draped across caught the eyes of the authorities in eagle pass. Like the others on the limit card he had begun his journey from mexico city and once he crossed the border to the United States however, the question arose what race was he. Despite his elegant appearance, his skin had a somewhat swarthy tone and unlike mexico, that texas at 1809 possessed segregation laws designed to limit contact between black and white and everything from schools, restaurants, libraries, graveyards and hotels to railroad cars. When asked, he insisted he was an entrepreneur on his way back to his office from wall street after negotiating the purchase of several mutations in his homeland. For those that might have trouble with the pronunciations that could be translated into english as William Henry ellis. They circulated along the border that all this obvious wealth and sophistication, he might not be the welltodo mexican he claimed to be. Could it be that his complexion is a product not of hispanic background but rather a covert africanamerican one dismissing such assertions, he refused the attempts to relocate him to the coach after the aztec limited. Once the train guru, some of the local sheriffs charged with the segregation statute that he grudgingly obliged but not within earshot of the hundreds of thousands of dollars necessary forcing him to ride in the jim crow era. Such was the question many found themselves asking as the staffer had an astonishing array of the worthy evidence and a scandalous trials unexpected disappearance is common diplomatic controversies most often one way to another in latin america the uncertainties didnt confine themselves to the Border Crossing at eagle pass. During his years in the public eye of the commentators had the possibilities and the new york world observed he had the looks of a spaniard and speaks several languages as a wealthy mexican and in fact the wealthiest residents of the city of mexico. Others maintained he was a cuban gentleman of high degree. Editors from the kansas city star, however caution they are not to be credited on equally suspicious correspondence of the Baltimore Sun discounted the rumor he was of cuban brazilian mexican and who knows what oth other. You mentioned a moment ago that youve been tracking down the story for the past ten years or so. I understand hes been undermined for much longer than that. Can you tell how she came across this . I dont even want to count the number of years now but when i was in graduate school, i was looking at some records from the u. S. Consul in northern mexico. But i discovered was an events that happened in 1895 and which was hundreds of sharecroppers in georgia relocating to northern mexico. When we talk about the u. S. And mexico we always talk about coming to the United States we dont ever think about why they would go to mexico because the ruling by the Supreme Court and theres lots of reasons why they would find mexico a attractive place to be and i got very interested in thinking about this sort of hidden migration we dont think about and i got very interested in trying to figure out who was behind this and who wouldve realized the system between the u. S. And mexico didnt need to go from north to south actually could go from south to north and it was a very mysterious figure by these names and that is the initial that got me interested in figuring out who is this person that had a vision of the border into the relationshiand therelationship d mexico. Today we are located downtown at the Public Library not far from where ellis lived and worked. Since you spend so much time immersing yourself in 19th and early 20th century san antonio life as he researched the book, i would iq to take us back there for a moment. What was this place like . That is a great question. One thing that is fascinating is san antonio is at the trade across the border into mexico and so, i dont think that it is at all accidental that he ends up moving here. Theres a couple things that are happening. So he grows up in victoria. You cant pass in your hometown. Everyone knows you and your family comfamily, so you need to someplace that you are unknown and the closest big city to victoria is san antonio and there is a train that was built in the 1880s that allows you to relocate to san antonio. Once you are here an there is oe third ethnic mexicans at that time period so there is a Large Community that he can blend into and no one knows who he is. And so, but it is not accidental its not only the closest big town, its also the town that is most connected with mexico and so throughout his life he looks at these places and relationships between the u. S. And mexico. He was born in victoria which is where the southern plantation belt is in the northern mexican cattle ranching begins in those two places and that they overlap in a very small portion of tex texas. Here in san antonio, hes at the heart of where this transported trade so all those buildings around the military plaza would have been traitors that involved with mexico and those buildings would have been for storing houses for things like cotton and cattle hide and Everything Else for the trading back and forth across mexico and as i think most people know its the sort of seed of where the food comes from because every evening they would actually come out and have mexican food in the military plaza. When he moves to new york that may seem like an odd thing to do, but new york, wall street is completely fascinated with mexico during this time period that almost everything thats happening in the United States economy is one way or another connected so this is the early 19 hundreds, this is the period of electrification so you need copper and that comes from mexico. The creation of the automobile comes from mexico. Even things like the rise of junk food as it were and chocolate and vanilla, where does this come from, it comes from mexico and so by being in new york city, he is once again at the place where the relationship between mexico and the United States hasnt had its most reticulated format. The narratives are obviously foundational to the literary tradition and the theme as you mentioned a moment ago plays an essential role in the emergence of what we now call africanamerican literature including fiction and nonfiction about characters who pass of itf as white as latino. You mentioned in the book links than hughes and you just mentioned James Johnson and give also mentioned ll larson we might think about the work of jesse foster who depicted this effort to pass as latino and fiction. Is there any evidence that ellis was at all familiar with the literature of slavery or details of passing . That is a great fascinating question. I have to believe he was also at the same time, the trick in the book is living in new york city during and i feel on some level hes participating in that even though he has to be careful about how much he gets involved because hes trying to hide certain aspects of his background but thats one of those fascinating things. One of the themes i talk about in the book is the notion of him as a trickster that comes from africanamerican folklore and i have to believe that they are central to the folklore from slavery and its aftermath in some ways i think it informed his perspective on the world that is a sort of deep faith to contextualize his cultural background. He struck me as someone who could easily be a character because he deploys some of the strategies that johnson himself in his autobiography compasses to deploying when he would occasionally pass as cuban. But for alices strategies for passing . The touched on some of them but i want to touch on this a little bit more. That is a great question because i think that we talk about it purely as there is a little bit of that i that and te is relatively lighter skinned and that allowed him to say that he would be mexican. You can look at the color of the photograph he also cultivates one of these mexican style mustaches but theres more than just the physical appearance involved so part of it is of course the way that he dresses and folks are very upperclass very much in touch with european models that are influential in mexico at this time period and language is a big part of it as well so theres a great line from Langston Hughes that i quoted in the book and johnson does the same thing so that when you have to buy your ticket on the railroad and its one of the places that are segregated during this time, you buy your ticket in spanish and the ticket taker will often make the assumption because there is no way to prove your race, no one has a drivers license or passport or anything so they can make an assumption they must be mexican and they will sell you a ticket for the firstclass car. So language became a useful tool and James Johnson does the first debate the same thing so this is one of the things that he first learned spanish he was picking coffin alongside the field hands in victoria and that interesting interaction allows him to do all these other things and in an interesting way play on the stereotypes of texans who have a certain sense of a mexican is supposed to be an and an africanamerican iandafricaname to manipulate the stereotypes to his own advantage. Im going to ask one more question but then we will invite questions from the audience. If you do have a question, he would ask that you use the microphones so that the tv audience can hear what youre asking while. You mentioned a moment ago that you analyze the photographs in much the same way a ticket seller would read his character. What are some of the other tools of evidence that you deploy into the . To get at this very tricky story . That is a great question. In many respects it would have been impossible without the digitization of the archives that we have encountered. I am not one of those people that embraces the web and digitizes everything but the tricky thing is im trying to write this story about someone trying to hide from his story and there isnt one obvious place where there is a lot of sources about him and so i used things so a lot of the census data is digitized so you can put in the names into various pseudonyms and he can actually get all sorts of stories about him popping up all over the country and all sorts of unexpected places and eventually using those digitized census records i was able to track down family members and that was important for me because it allowed me to match up and see what his public persona was, its what the public image is and then once he could hear what the families had he could get a sense of what his actual family background was like and they had lots of great photos including the one on the cover with his top hat and they had personal letters and a lot of Great Stories and it was an interesting conversation bringing to gathe together the y stories and the Public Record of what he was imagined to be and seeing the gap that existed in how he navigated between the gap of his background and his sort of elevated image in public life during this time period do we have any questions from the audience . Please join us at the microphone. You mentioned you started the book ten years ago and youve been thinking about it since graduate school. Since its been published have you learned more about the subject . Have people come forward and getting you more information than you wishe wish you had fore buck . So far not too much although generally, that is one of the things that is fascinating that does shake loose whenever you write a book. In this case, one of the things i did as i created a website about the project first, so a lot of the people i did want to contact particularly the family in mexico which is incredibly hard to track down, i was able to track them down before the book came out which was transformative for the book. I dont know if that is the answer to your question but one of the things im looking forward to is next month in mexico and outside of mexico city, William Ellis grand daughter is getting married and i was invited to the wedding as well as some of the family members from the u. S. Side of the family, so it is going to be a combination of wedding, Family Reunion and the creation of a new generation and so, in that respect, the book has this afterlife i should say thats been fascinating and im not exactly sure where it is all going to go but i think something more will happen. The other part of the book that is fascinating is that he is involved in ethiopia and i do think that the way that hes thought about as the first africanamerican to go to ethiopia the way that he thought about it im curious to see what he thinks. But he ends up washed ashore carrying a treaty to ethiopia to sign protest then a while since i have seen the file but i assume he went on to have the treaty signed was he in contact after that about the death and the difficulty of piecing together his life. But was the time line for those two years after word . Did the death stick to him in terms of his reputation . Also looked at the colony where they were taking africanamericans this seems a they were unhappy and wanted to come back to the United States. Rebel give a little background on the question. One of the interesting chapters of the book William Ellis is involved during the first u. S. Treaty to ethiopia in the early 1900s fernandes traveling on the steam ship with his brother of the assistant secretary of state somehow William Allen says inserted himself into the state department he has no diplomatic background but he has attached itself to this mission and that some point then gentlemen he is with is either pushed or falls off the steamship and his dead body washes up on the shore of great britain. Theres a lot of controversy was he pushed over is specially people dig into his background he may not be this figure they thought he was back. So whether he is a murderer or not that is one of the big unsolved mysteries of the book i believe after words William Ellis was brought into the state department by Teddy Roosevelt. And this brings them notoriety only by obscuring part of the background does he give rise to a station of american diplomacy at the same time by becoming more visible he has the paradox he has to navigate to be extremely nervous and anxious after this murder accident takes place because the risks him to be unmasked. But in 1895 and there are some people who still trace themselves back to that original migration there are those who realize that mexico does not have segregation basically they go from sharecroppers to working in mexico isnt a benefit one day one way or the other. And to completely resolve all of the challenges that africanamericans are facing during this time so there is tremendous excitement in the United States especially in the south because they realize theyre not treating africanamerican as well that they have that possibility that thousands if not the majority might move to mexico and that is an alternative history that is interesting to contemplate. There is an enjoyable book the United States, a texas and on that point was this your first connection plexus theyre interested of these textbook characters this a funny question. I am not from texas. When i thought about Texas History i thought of the alamo i am not sure i want to be a texas historian. But i should not say that here. [laughter] but this is important. I was trying to trace the character i did not know where he was from and tracing aback by found myself in san antonio. So in retrospect of course, where else would africanamerican be from with mexican culture that can only be from texas . At the academic level what are trying to get across thinking about the history of slavery that one of those tensions us sold. The slavery was booming and then to move down. You cannot grow cotton in kentucky. So they all come down to participate in a cotton boom. But then the more it grows the closer you get to the of border then the closer that slaves can escape. And then as they do escape across the border into mexico so i came away from this completely that Texas History that almost all of the most important issues of American History could be found in texas. I dont know what i will do next. Have a second question. The part is the related to the jefferson huntings group treks. So the question is of all this stuff going on at the same time and then going to northwestern for one year than they discover she is africanamerican. And then to go to vassar and disabled to get her degree. And then to disappear. Man bade the Anita Henning was from. How did he make his money . To be a black African American in theory the first on wall street bet it would have then impossible in the late 19th or early 20th century. They he was married to a white woman which was legal in new york at the time but in texas it was illegal for blacks than whites to be very derris person my professional reasons to keep as background hit in. And that most americans know nothing but then they are able to serve he actually makes his money to set up his deals and also involved in the biggest one. Bowfin mexico of all the things to privatize and make money out of it. I hope and dont give away too much of the plot but he is doing very well. I will buy the book. [laughter] he is very connected. Then of revolution comes along. With all those relationships and then converted into a liability is. You know, that Teddy Roosevelt organized the roughriders. But there is Teddy Roosevelt stuff on that. They did go to the hotel to drink. We have time for one more . Question. We all those uh challenges i can see how he could physically path. This. Host me close calls that the question he did not need to fool the mexicans and then needs to speak enough spanish tbilisi is a mexican he is not pretending to be mexican depending on which side of the border so i do have letters he has written in spanish obviously this is one of the frustrations i dont have a tape recording or what the access would have been like with those regional variations with the mexico city is a different thing. How we negotiated as well. So no reporting of close calls. Not to give away another point but in san antonio he gets caught so he is caught and they used to have the sea for every betty was africanamerican hip had no letter c pet now it appeared that after that he disappears in you dont see him again until about one year later and he was caught eventually said he was more careful in york city. That is all the time that we have. You can continue the conversation as he signs books outside the library. Please join me to think can. [applause] [inaudible conversations]. Will come the name of this session and i and the metro columnist and i am pleased to be here today. Before we get started we want to make sure we leave 10 minutes for questions