Pages

Sunday 15 October 2023

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY PRINCE P/82

                                                            Read Part One HERE


In this post I continue to look at a woman named Mary Prince. She lived from 1788 - (appr.) 1833.

Mary was returned to Bermuda in 1812, where Robert Darrell had moved with his daughter. While here, she was apparently physically abused by him and fored to bathe him under threats of further beatings. Mary resisted Darrell's abuse on two occasions: once in defence of his daughter, whom he also beat; the second time, defending herself from Darrell when he beat her for dropping kitchen utensils. After this, she left his direct service and was hired out to Cedar Hill for a time, where she earned money for her enslaver by washing clothes.

in 1815, Mary was sold a fourth time, to John Adams Wood of Antigua for $300. She worked in his household as a domestic slave, nursing a young child and washing clothes. There she began to suffer from rheumatism, which left her unable to work. When Adam Woods was travelling, Mary earned money for herself by taking in washing and by selling coffee, yams and other provisions to ships.

In Antigua, she joined the Moravian Church, where she also attended classes and learned to read. In 1826, Mary married Daniel James, a former enslaved man who had bought his freedom by saving money from his work. Her floggings increased after her marriage because Adam Woods and his wife did not want a free black man living on their property.

Read Part Eighty-Three HERE

No comments:

Post a Comment