OOC Information:
Preferred Form of Address on A&A: Jess
Preferred Contact Information: AIM: Big Bellyfat Bob, MSN: infinitemobius@yahoo.com
Other Characters on A&A: Sarah Borden, Gwyneth Pritchard, Katherine Townsend, Bruce Todd Abercrombie
How You Found A&A: Already a member

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IC Information
Name:
Rachel Grant-Freeman

Avatar:
Gina Torres

Occupation:
Opinion Columnist for The Lindebo Gazette
Activist

Age:
29

Gender:
Female

Appearance:
Rachel is tall at 5’10”, able to look most men in the eye and quite muscular. Her eyes are clear, dark brown, and slightly almond-shaped. Her smile is wide, her teeth straight and white. Her nose is small and straight, and her lips are very full. Her ears are small and high-set, and her hair long, rusty black, and flowing in tight curls. Her skin is a warm brown, and she never wears any rouges or powders. Her overall facial structure shows both her Caucasian and African ancestry; she is what is referred to in this time as “Quadroon”.

Rachel stares people straight in the eye, always very direct and never demurely casting her gaze aside, as an appropriate woman would do. She will wear a hat only if she remembers to put one on in the morning, never wears corsets, and she always, without fail, wears the Bloomer outfit. This consists of a long tunic over flowing, baggy trousers. Occasionally she will wear closer-fit trousers that end just below the knee, a bicycling costume. In any case, she is always seen wearing trousers of some sort (although not men’s trousers, they are always feminine in style—not because she wouldn’t be willing to, but rather so that she will not get prosecuted for impersonating a man). She carries a traditional woman’s reticule, but the contents are quite untraditional—she carries a six-shot revolver inside. She also carries knuckle-dusters within the pocket of her voluminous trousers.

Personality:
Rachel is not a shrinking violet. She is eminently capable of standing up for herself, and will not compromise her opinions under pressure—only if she is rationally convinced that they are incorrect. She is very assertive about her opinions, and lives by her own integrity and ideals. Rachel publicly announces her radical opinions, both by publishing in The Lindebo Gazette and in her everyday manner of dress and behaviour.

She believes everything that a Victorian woman was expected not too. She thinks that women are the intrinsic equals of men, and refuses to marry any man that does not understand this and expect her place to be not behind him, but at his side—not that any man has ever asked her. She believes that women are capable of anything that they want to do and can physically manage; she does not think that all women are stronger than all men, but argues that not all men are stronger than all women. She believes in the intellectual development of women and their active pursuit of knowledge. She supports women’s suffrage and Parliamentary reform. She also supports dress reform and especially the banishing of corsets. She wholeheartedly believes in Science and Progress.

She believes in not only the rights of women but also the rights of non-whites. She argues against the opium trade and British expansionism. She vocally supports the freedom of India and the end of British Imperialism all over the world. She believes in a modified Marxist doctrine, and is keenly interested in world affairs.

No longer Anglican, because she was excommunicated from the Church for thinking that women should be allowed to be priests—and vocally informing others of her belief—as well as her style of dress, Rachel is now “That person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church, and excommunicated, to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful, as an Heathen and Publican, until she be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the Church by a Judge that hath the authority thereunto.” She now has no particular desire to be received back into the fold by said Judge, and although she holds Christian beliefs, she does not belong to a sect. The Church is a frequent target of her columns.

Rachel has no qualms about saying things that might be considered rude; she speaks her mind freely, and will not trouble herself to be considerate of other’s feelings unless she thinks they are valid. She lets insults roll off her like water from a duck, although if someone directly insults her or presents a viewpoint that she cannot agree with, she will calmly, without excessive anger, aggressively argue her own point. If it is obvious that she is getting nowhere, she will curtail the argument by informing her opponent of their inability to look beyond their own opinion, and will turn and walk away with no sensation of defeat.

History:
Rachel was born as a slave on a South Carolina plantation in America, the daughter of the slave Sukey. Her original name was Pug, because the first words that her owner said upon seeing her were, “What an ugly little pug!” Then he laughed, slapped his knee, and she was Pug.

She grew up in the environment of scrabbling poverty and total dehumanization that was the lot of slaves in the South. Pug never knew her father; he was not ever her owner. She was a young child when the American Civil War broke out, and during the confusion all throughout the country, her mother Sukey took the opportunity to escape the plantation with her young daughter. They traveled up the Underground Railroad to the North, and though Pug remembers some of this, she does not have the full frightening recollection of it that Sukey does. Eventually, they stowed away in the sub-steerage of a freighter bound for England (see mother’s history for details).

In England, Pug was renamed Rachel by her mother, and they both took the surname Grant-Freeman, chose by her mother Sukey, now Tirzah. The name Rachel was chosen because it was from the Bible, and Tirzah, a devout Christian, had always loved it. Grant-Freeman was a reference to their new liberty; Freeman was chosen for obvious reasons and Grant was chosen for the Civil War hero of the North, General Ulysses S. Grant, who crushed the Southern Confederacy.

Tirzah started again in England, working in a sweatshop in Lindebo for little wages and grueling hours. She put aside everything not needed for food, clothing, or lodgings for Rachel, and sent her daughter to school. At school, Rachel learned that the white girls and teachers would pick on her anyway, even if she excelled academically and kept her mouth shut. So she excelled academically anyways, but ceased to be a demure young lady. She quickly garnered a reputation as an improper and aggressively argumentative and altogether disagreeable woman, and was eventually kicked out of the boarding school. Tirzah, who was supportive of her daughter’s goals and personality, only scolded her a little before hatching a new plan for her daughter’s education.

Rachel was sent to Oxford to learn with a private tutor, a professor at the University who needed the income. He was an old doctor, who regarded her as a sort of substitute granddaughter, and this was her introduction into civil rights and socialism. The old don, Guthrie Harwick, was an activist, a follower of Karl Marx, and brought Rachel into this sphere as well as giving her a higher education. It was also during this time that Rachel learned to shoot a gun and fight with her dusters, from young activist men who saw no difficulty in teaching her these things. Harwick died when Rachel was 23, ending her tutored education, although she still continues to improve her mind to this day. She went to London after consulting with her mother, and tried for two years to find a publisher for her writings.

Having no luck there, Rachel came back to Lindebo and for six months worked as a seamstress with her mother, before she found Lord Charles Bourke-Hargrave and The Lindebo Gazette. On finding out that he would allow both women and people of color to publish in his paper, she became a prolific contributor via correspondence. After six months he figured out who she was, tracked her down, and offered a staff position in his paper. She accepted with alacrity, and has been for three years now. She has only been physically attacked because of her views two times. The number of times that she has been verbally attacked is uncountable.

She lives now in the Townsend boarding-house, and tried to get her mother to move in with her. She is willing and able to support Tirzah but Tirzah refuses all offers of support as well as all the “small Christmas gifts” and “Easter gifts” and “Birthday gifts” or whatever other excuse that Rachel can dredge up to give Tirzah some help. She is trying to persuade her mother with utmost persistence to move out of the slums.

Strengths:

• Intelligent
• Literate
• Financially secure
• Physically strong
• Carries a revolver and can use
• Carries knuckle dusters and can use

Weaknesses:

• Black
• Unmarried at 29
• Excommunicated from Anglican Church
• Activist (shunned and sometimes endangered)
• Wears the Bloomer outfit (people sometimes attacked Bloomer-wearing women)

Picture:

:banana: Approved.

:mjinga: