author
Adele M. Jewel
1834–1921
A rare autobiographical voice from 19th-century America, her writing offers a direct, personal view of life as a deaf woman surviving poverty and instability. Her brief memoir is valued today for its honesty and for the window it opens onto Deaf experience before the Civil War.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1834, Adele M. Jewel is known for A brief narrative of the life of Mrs. Adele M. Jewel (being deaf and dumb), published in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1869. The book presents her own account of hardship, reflection, and daily life, and survives as an unusual first-person record from a deaf American woman of the 19th century.
Scholars of Deaf writing have noted the importance of her work because it preserves the perspective of a lower-class deaf woman in an era when such voices were rarely published. In that sense, her memoir is more than a personal story: it is also a valuable historical document about disability, gender, and survival in the United States.
Some modern references list her life dates as 1834–1921, while others are less certain about the year of her death. What is clear is that her small book continues to be read for its plainspoken candor and for the insight it gives into a life that might otherwise have been lost to history.