February 21, 2022 - Christiana Bannister

Christiana Bannister earned her place in history, for the wife of talented landscape artist Edward Bannister was a force in her own right. An abolitionist, philanthropist, and business entrepreneur, she promoted her husband’s career and helped runaway slaves through her role in the Boston Underground Railroad. She owned her own hair salons and was known as the Hair Doctress.
Bannister’s parents were slaves when she was born in approximately 1820 in Rhode Island, but Rhode Island had previously passed a law in 1784 that all children born after that date would eventually be free after reaching the age of eighteen or twenty-one, making Bannister free when she reached the age of majority.
We know little of her childhood, but we do know that Bannister’s brother married a woman who ran her own businesses. Bannister likely joined her sister-in-law in business at the Ladies Hair Works Salon in Salem, a large wig factory, where she learned hairdressing and wig-making. The family was also active in the abolitionist movement, so Bannister would have met abolitionist leaders such as William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass through her in-laws.
She did change her name to Carteaux after a brief marriage to a clothing dealer-her businesses were more successful than the marriage, however.
Bannister went on to open her own salon in Boston, one of at least four she would own across Boston. The elite of society patronized her salons, making her financially successful and well-regarded.
Bannister, now a successful businesswoman, expanded her salons to Rhode Island, taking advantage of the newly developed train transportation system to travel back and forth between her salons. Known as Madame Carteaux, she advertised in the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, billing herself as a hair doctress and offering a wide range of services which included “a Hair Restorative, which cannot be excelled, as it produces new hair where baldness has taken place.” Her salons grew into meeting sites for the abolitionist leaders.
Edward Mitchell Bannister walked into one of her Boston salons in 1853 and applied for work as a barber-she married him four years later. She recognized his talent as a painter far excelled those he had as a barber, and she encouraged him to pursue his career as a painter full-time.
Her gamble paid off, and her husband Edward gained national recognition as an artist.
Those who have seen the 1989 movie Glory will know the story of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment of black soldiers. Bannister raised money to support the unit financially, and standing alongside abolitionist Frederick Douglass, in 1863 she presented the colors to the African American soldiers of the 54th Regiment.
The Bannisters moved to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1869, where she opened another salon and was well-known as a patroness of the arts whose fundraisers financially helped the widows and orphans of the African American soldiers who gave their lives pursuing freedom in the Civil War.
Bannister saw yet another need in the community and was one of the founders of a nursing home now known as the Bannister House. The Home for Aged and Colored Women opened in 1890, and she supported the facility financially and in a hands-on role by serving as a member of the staff.
Sadly, after the death of her husband, she endured poverty and was herself sent to live at the nursing home she had established in 1890, only a decade before.
After her death in 1902, she was buried alongside her husband, but no marker was placed on her grave, despite her remarkable life.
One hundred years later, state officials unveiled a bronze sculpture bust of her at the Rhode Island State House, finally awarding her the public recognition she deserved. The next year in 2003, she was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.