Queer Places:
49 Catherine St, Newport, RI 02840
Sallie Mercer
(1830-1894) started working as a maid for
Charlotte Cushman at around age 14 in 1844. She
was the only one to accompany Cushman on her first trip to England and will stay with her until her death. Over the course of these three decades Mercer
took on several roles in Cushman professional and private life, most importantly taking care of her theater costumes, arranging her travels, and managing her household in Rome. In
Emma
Stebbins's memoir of Cushman, Mercer was described as follows: It was
about this time that Miss Cushman's well-known maid, Sallie, became a part of
her family, — I might well say a part of herself, for she always called her
"her right hand." Any memorial would be incomplete which would leave out the
friend and companion of all her wanderings, the sharer of her trials and her
triumphs, the good, de voted, faithful Sallie Mercer.
In her will, Cushman bequeathes "to her faithful servant, Sallie Mercer, $500 yearly and the use of a house in Philadelphia free of rent." Cushman's partner Emma Stebbins continues to mention "my good Sallie" (letter to
Anne Whitney, July 6, 1878) as her companion even after Cushman's death, which suggests that the two stayed not only in touch, but shared the home in Newport, to which both were given "use" in Cushman's will.
Letters addressing her touring in the South before the Civil War point to Cushman's reluctance to travel there for fear of safety of Mercer, who was African American. Other letters include greetings from Mercer to Cushman's correspondents which stresses Mercer's standing within this network of women (e. g. by
Geraldine Jewsbury).
There is also one letter by
Matilda Hays addressed directly to Sallie Mercer. Her own handwriting survices at the end of this letter from 1865.
She died in or shortly before 1894, since reference is made to her death in this letter.
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