The Garies And Their Friends

Francis Johnson Webb, an American author, poet, and essayist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His work, The Garies and Their Friends (1857), was the second novel published by an African American, and the first to depict the daily lives of free blacks in the North. Frank Webb was born in Philadelphia on March 21, 1828. He was the fifth and youngest child of Francis Webb (1788-1829) and Louisa Burr Webb. His maternal grandfather, former US Vice President Aaron Burr, was confirmed by DNA testing in 2018. Webb had one brother, John (1823-1904), and three sisters: Elizabeth (1818-1888), Ann (1820-1884), and Mary (1824-1826). Webb's mother, Louisa Charlotte Burr, was Aaron Burr's daughter. She and her brother John Pierre Burr, a well-known black activist in Philadelphia, were born to an East Indian woman who worked as a governess in Burr's family. Louisa Burr Webb spent the majority of her life working for Mrs. Elizabeth Powel Francis Fisher, a renowned Philadelphia society matron with strong ties to the city's oldest families and the mother of prominent Philadelphia businessman Joshua Francis Fisher. After Francis Webb died, Louisa remarried and changed her name to Louisa Darius.

Mrs. Garie had determined not to be sea-sick upon any account whatever, being fully persuaded she could brave the ocean with impunity, and was, accordingly, very brisk and blithe-looking, as she walked up and down upon the deck of the vessel. In the course of a few hours they sailed out of the harbour, and were soon in the open sea. She began to find out how mistaken she had been, as unmistakable symptoms convinced her of the vanity of all human calculations. "Why, you are not going to be ill, Em, after all your valiant declarations!" exclaimed Mr. Garie, supporting her unsteady steps, as they paced to and fro.