Elizabeth W. (Elizabeth Whitfield) Bellamy

Born in Quincy, Florida, on April 17, 1837, she became known as Elizabeth Whitfield Croom Bellamy after her marriage and built a career as both an author and a teacher. Reliable sources describe her as a prolific American writer of novels, short stories, essays, and poems, and note that she taught school for many years.

Bellamy published some of her work under the pen name Kamba Thorpe. Her books include Four Oaks (1867), The Little Joanna (1876), Old Man Gilbert (1888), and Benny Lancaster (1890). She also contributed to major magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly, and one of her best-known later pieces is the 1899 story Ely’s Automatic Housemaid.

Modern reference sources highlight that, unlike many post–Civil War Southern writers, she often focused on contemporary everyday experience rather than simply romanticizing the antebellum South. She died in Mobile, Alabama, on April 13, 1900.