"Just call me Margaret," was Margaret Haughery's lighthearted reply to those who had difficulty pronouncing her last name. And it was as "Just Margaret" that she was loved and revered by the citizens of New Orleans for her compassionate charity to all, regardless of race or creed.

Orphaned at an early age, this unlettered, penniless Irish lass arrived in New Orleans in 1832, and not long afterward she had lost both her sick husband and small daughter. Seeking to fill her empty heart, Margaret worked without wages at a nearby orphanage. Her single-minded concern for the children propelled her into the operation of a highly successful dairy and a bakery. She accumulated a large fortune, most of which she used to help anyone suffering from want. Margaret further endeared herself by the heroic part she played during the yellow fever epidemic of 1853 and in the trying Reconstruction Period following the War between the States. After her death in 1882, the grateful people of New Orleans erected a public monument to her memory.

Along with her tender and lively portrait of Margaret, Flora Strousse has provided a rich panorama of gay and frivolous New Orleans before it was brought low by the War between the States. And interwoven around both is the author's warm plea for racial and religious tolerance, a plea often made by Margaret Haughery and as urgent in the 20th as it was in the 19th century.

From the dust jacket