Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule

In 1844, Missouri belle Julia Dent met dazzling horseman Lieutenant Ulysses S Grant. Four years passed before their parents permitted them to wed, and the grooms abolitionist family refused to attend the ceremony. Since childhood, Julia owned as a slave another Julia, known as Jule. Jule guarded her mistresss closely held twin secrets: She had perilously poor vision but was gifted with prophetic sight. So it was that Jule became Julias eyes to the world. And what a world it was, marked by gathering clouds of war. The Grants vowed never to be separated, but as Ulysses rose through the ranksbecoming general in chief of the Union Armyso did the stakes of their pact. During the war, Julia would travel, often in the company of Jule and the four Grant children, facing unreliable transportation and certain danger to be at her husbands side. Yet Julia and Jule saw two different wars. While Julia spoke out for womenUnion and Confederateshe continued to hold Jule as a slave behind Union lines. Upon the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Jule claimed her freedom and rose to prominence as a businesswoman in her own right, taking the honorary title Madame. The two womens paths continued to cross throughout the Grants White House years in Washington, DC, and later in New York City, the site of Grants Tomb.