Emilie Davis

Emilie "Emily" Frances Davis (February 18, 1839 – December 26, 1889) was a free African American woman living in Philadelphia during the American Civil War. She wrote three pocket diaries for the years 1863, 1864, and 1865 recounting her perspective on the Emancipation Proclamation, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the mourning of President Lincoln. These diaries are unique in their depiction of 19th century life of urban African American women and reactions to the events of the Civil War. Writings Between 1863 and 1864, Emilie described going out for ice cream on four separate occasions, an indication of the expanding space that black Philadelphians inhabited during the Civil War. Earlier, in the summer of 1857, Charlotte Forten and a friend had been refused service at three Philadelphia ice cream parlors before they gave up.

Emilie and George had six children, Jacob C. White (b. 1867), Maria, Emilie (b. 1873), George (b. 1875), Carry (b. 1877), and Julia (b. 1881).

Her husband, George White, died on June 1, 1899. They are held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and page images are available online at the Pennsylvania State University and Villanova University web sites. First-person written accounts of black American women of her time are rare.