Williamsburg Regional Library

Girl in black and white, the story of Mary Mildred Williams and the abolition movement, Jessie Morgan-Owens

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

individual biography

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Girl in black and white

bibliography

1037810221

Jessie Morgan-Owens

the story of Mary Mildred Williams and the abolition movement

"The riveting, little-known story of Mary Mildred Williams--a slave girl who looked 'white'--whose photograph transformed the abolitionist movement. When a decades-long court battle resulted in her family's freedom in 1855, seven-year-old Mary Mildred Williams unexpectedly became the face of American slavery. During a sold-out abolitionist lecture series, Senator Charles Sumner paraded Mary in front of rapt audiences as evidence that slavery knew no bounds. Weaving together long-overlooked primary sources and arresting images, including the daguerreotype that turned Mary into the poster child of a movement, Jessie Morgan-Owens investigates tangled generations of sexual enslavement and the fraught politics that led Mary to Sumner. She restores Mary's story to history and uncovers a dramatic narrative of travels along the Underground Railroad, relationships tested by oppression, and the struggles of life after emancipation. The result is an exposé of the thorny racial politics of the abolitionist movement and the pervasive colorism that dictated where white sympathy lay--one that sheds light on a shameful legacy that still affects us profoundly today"--, Provided by publisherWhen a decades-long court battle resulted in her family's freedom in 1855, seven-year-old Mary Mildred Williams became the face of American slavery. A slave girl who looked 'white,' Mary was paraded before audiences during a sold-out abolitionist lecture series held by Senator Charles Sumner, and her photograph transformed the abolitionist movement. Morgan-Owens investigates tangled generations of sexual enslavement and the fraught politics that led Mary to Sumner. In restoring Mary's story to history, she uncovers an exposé of the thorny racial politics of the abolitionist movement and the pervasive colorism that dictated where white sympathy lay. -- adapted from jacket

Prologue: Boston, May 29, 1855 -- Constance Cornwell, Prince William County, Virginia, 1805 -- Prudence Nelson Bell, Nelson's Plantation and Mill, 1826 -- Jesse and Albert Bell Nelson, Washington, 1847 -- Henry Williams, Boston, 1850 -- John Albion Andrew, Boston, 1852 -- Elizabeth Williams, Prince William County, 1852 -- Evelina Bell, Washington, February 1855 -- Mary Hayden Green Pike, Calais, Maine, November 1854 -- Julian Vannerson, Washington, February 1855 -- Richard Hildreth, Boston, March 1855 -- Charles Sumner, Washington, February 1855 -- "A white slave from Virginia," New York, March 1855 -- The Williams family, Boston, March 7, 1855 -- "Features, skin, and hair," Boston, March 1855 -- Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Worcester, Massachusetts, March 27, 1855 -- "The antislavery enterprise," Boston, March 29, 1855 -- Private life, Boston, October 1855 -- "The crime against Kansas," Washington, May 1856 -- Frederick Douglass, Boston, 1860 -- Prudence Bell, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1864 -- Epilogue: Hyde Park, Massachusetts, 2017

adult

Story of Mary Mildred Williams and the abolition movement