Read Part One HERE
In this post I will focus on two women named Mary Edmonson and Emily Edmonson. Mary lived from 1832 - 1853 and her sister Emily lived from 1835 - 1895. They were the daughters of Paul and Amelia Edmonson, a free black man and an enslaved woman. They lived in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. At the ages of 15 and 13, Mary and Emily were hired out to work as servants in two elite private homes in Washington D.C. under a lease agreement that required their wages to go to their owner.
On 15 April, 1848, Mary and Emily and four of their brothers joined 71 other slaves on "The Pearl" in what was the largest escape attempt by enslaved people in U.S. history. A posse organised by Washington, D.C. area slave owners captured "The Pearl" on Chesapeake Bay at Point Lookout, Maryland, and towed the ship and its cargo back to Washington, D.C.
Mary and Emily together with the other slaves were sold and sent to New Orleans where their new owners, slave trader partners Bruin & Hill displayed them on an open porch facing the street hoping to attract buyers. A yellow fever epidemic struck New Orleans, forcing Bruin & Hill to send the two girls back to Alexandria, Virginia, to protect their investment.
Their father meanwhile continued his campaign to free his daughters. When Bruin & Hill demanded $2,250 for the sisters' release, he travelled to New York City and met with members of the American Anti-Slavery Society who told him to take his plea to Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, a prominent abolitionist and pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn,New York. Their father convinced Reverend Beecher and church members to raise funds to purchase the girls and free them.
Read Part One Hundred And Sixty-Two HERE
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