American socialite Wallis Simpson, the woman for whom Edward VIII gave up the throne in 1936, is variously portrayed as a greedy snob, a sexual predator or part of the romance of the century. A complex figure emerges: a strong-willed woman, hungry for independence, but caught up in a situation she could not control. Mrs. Wallis Simpson has become an emotional figure in history. Along with this, many descriptions of her personality and motives for being with Edward have caused some extremely negative descriptions; the nicer ones range from witch to seductress. So who really was Mrs. Wallis Simpson?
Bessie Wallis Warfield, named after her aunt and her father, as she was born in Baltimore, Maryland, was something of a misfit from the start. Her arrival in June 19,1896 came just seven months after the marriage of her parents, causing some embarrassment to Warfield relatives for whom moral propriety was essential as the elite of Baltimore society. Bessie's father died when she was five months old and throughout her formative years, she and her mother had to rely on irregular handouts from a wealthy relative. Because her father left them with no money so they relied charity from her mother’s husband’s late brother.
As Wallis grew into a young woman, she was not necessarily considered pretty. Yet Wallis had a sense of style and poses that made her distinguished and attractive. She had radiant eyes, good complexion and fine, smooth black hair, which she kept parted down the middle for most of her life. Bessie discarded her first name - because "so many cows are called Bessie" - and learned how to flirt. But she was still shut out of the world she regarded as her birthright. Soon after the humiliation of "coming out" without the usual debutante's celebration ball, she grasped the first means of escape from Baltimore by becoming engaged.
On November 8 1916 she was married to her first husband, at the age of 20 was to a Navy pilot Earl Winfield Spencer. The marriage was reasonably good until the end of World War I when many ex-soldiers became bitter at the inconclusiveness of the war and the difficulty in adapting back to civilian life. After the Armistice, Win began to drink heavily and also became abusive. Wallis eventually left Win and lived six years by herself in Washington. Win and Wallis weren't yet divorced a...
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...buried alongside Edward in the royal burial ground at Windsor.
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The Atypical Woman in a Typical World Do many people know who Anne Spencer is? Probably not. Anne Spencer was a Harlem Renaissance poet who actually lived in Lynchburg, Virginia. She immensely enjoyed working in her garden and spending time in Edankraal, a small cottage in her garden where she wrote most of her poetry. Though Anne was a hard worker, she definitely was not a typical woman of the early 20th century.
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Just as everything in my life seemed to be straightening itself out, everything began to fall apart again. Sir William died suddenly in 1669, leaving me once again almost without a family. Jonathon was all I had left in the world. During this time, the two of us grew very close. He called me Stella, oh how I loved that name. We shared everything with one another. We had a lot in common, for Jonathon was also raised without a father. His died two months before he was born. He talked of his early childhood in Dublin, Ireland, and then of how he moved to London, England. Jonathon used to write me the most beautiful letters; I still have them all. He used to write about his job as Chief Journalist and Principal Pamphleteer for Robert Harley, the Earl of Oxford. He would tell me how even though he enjoyed his job, what he really desired was more political power. I told him that his day would come. I knew he would soon get the power and fame that he deserved.
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While Bessie was young, and her older brothers and sisters started to work in the fields, Bessie took on some new responsibilities. She would now look after her sisters, and sometimes even help her mother in the garden. Bessie started school when she was six years old and walked four miles to school everyday. In school, she was very intelligent and excelled at math. Then, in 1901, when Bessie was nine, her life changed dramatically, her father George Coleman left his family. It was said that he was tired of the racial barriers that existed, and so he returned to Oklahoma (Indian Territory as it was called then) to search for better opportunities. When he was unable to convince his family to come with him, he left Susan and his family. Shortly thereafter, her older brothers also moved out, leaving Susan with four girls under the age of nine. This caused Susan to have to get a job, which she found very soon. She became a housekeeper for Mr. and Mrs. Jones, who allowed Susan to still live at home, and they would also give her food and other handed-down clothing. Since her mother was now at work, Bessie took on the responsibility of acting as a mother and a housekeeper. Every year at the cotton harvest, Bessie’s routine was changed because she now had to go out into the field and pick cotton for her family to be able to survive. This continued on until Bessie was twelve, and this was when she was accepted into the Missionary Baptist Church, where she completed all of her eight grades.
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The Coleman family, like majority African Americans who resided in the Deep South among the early 20th century, encounter a lot of troubles and hardships. Bessie's family dealt with segregation, and racial animosity. Because of such difficulties, Bessie's father made a decision to move their family to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. He conceived they could make a more desirable living for them there. Bessie's mother, didn't want to live in the Indian reservation and choose to stay in Waxahachie. Bessie, and a few of her sisters, also decided to stay in Texas. Bessie was a very determined person. In spite of working long hours, she still manged to find time to educate herself by getting books. Even though she couldn't attend school all the time, Bessie learned a good amount on her own enough to graduate high school. She then began on to study at a Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Langston, Oklahoma. However, because of her constrained budget, she only went for one semester of college.
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