Read Part One HERE
In this story I will focus on a woman named Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith. She lived from 1805 - 1875. Her father, William Fitzhugh, a colonel in the Continental Army, build a home near Chewsville, Maryland, which he called The Hive because of the many activities carried on by his twelve children and the work necessary to sustain life in the surrounding wilderness. William then left Maryland for Rochester, New York.
Ann married Gerrit Smith in 1822. They lived in a large frame house facing Peterboro Green, Gerrit's lifelong home.
As a child growing up in Chewsville, Maryland, Ann had been given a slave, Harriet Sims, who was later sold to a slaveholder in Kentucky, with her spouse Samuel Russell. After Ann's marriage to Gerrit, they located the Russells; they purchased their freedom and settled them into a home at Peterboro.
Ann's husband was one of the most powerful abolitionists in the US. Scores of abolitionists received comfort and support at their home. They purchased the freedom of hundreds of African Americans and arraganged for the safe passage of many to Canada. After 1835, Ann and her husband would not serve food grown with slave labour.
Read Part Ninety HERE
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