Mary Prince, the first woman to have a memoir of her experiences of slavery published in Britain, was born on this date in 1788.
Celebrated on her 230th birthday in today’s Google Doodle, the author of The History of Mary Prince (1831) was born at Brackish Pond in Bermuda, daughter of a sawyer and a housemaid, the family “owned” by one Charles Myners.
As a child, she was sold from one brutal slavemaster to another around the Caribbean islands, eventually ending up in Antigua in 1815 in the service of John Adams Wood, where she worked as a nursemaid and joined the Moravian Church, learning to read.
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She married Daniel James in December 1826 – a former slave set free, then working as a carpenter and cooper – but was horsewhipped for doing so by her master. The couple were separated when the Woods relocated to London, taking her with them.
In Britain, the passing of the Slavery Act of 1808 ensured Mary’s freedom, enabling her to escape their cruelty.
But she had no means to support herself independently and lived at the Moravian Mission House in Hatton Gardens until finally finding work through the patronage of abolitionist Thomas Pringle, secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society.
As enslavement was still legal in the colonies - parliament fearing the impact of abolition on the lucrative sugar industry - Mary found her place by campaigning for its complete end with the society, following encouragement from Pringle.
She became the first black woman to present a petition to the British government in 1829, arguing for the basic human rights of slaves.
Her autobiography appeared two years later, transcribed by Susanna Strickland, causing a sensation with its frank depiction of the horrors of the slave trade and plantation life and through its direct manner of address.
“I have been a slave myself,” she wrote. “I know what slaves feel—I can tell by myself what other slaves feel, and by what they have told me. The man that says slaves be quite happy in slavery—that they don’t want to be free—that man is either ignorant or a lying person. I never heard a slave say so.”
Her description of being made to rake the salt ponds in Grand Turk is typically uncompromising:
“I was immediately sent to work in the salt water with the rest of the slaves. I was given a half barrel and a shovel, and had to stand up to my knees in the water, from four o’clock in the morning till nine, when we were given some Indian corn boiled in water.
“We were then called again to our tasks, and worked through the heat of the day; the sun flaming upon our heads like fire, and raising salt blisters in those parts which were not completely covered. Our feet and legs, from standing in the salt water for so many hours, soon became full of dreadful boils, which eat down in some cases to the bone.”
Particularly moving was a passage in which she recounted being separated from her sisters Hannah and Dinah at an auction:
“We followed my mother to the market-place. At length the vendue master, who was to offer us for sale like sheep or cattle, arrived, and asked my mother which was the eldest. She said nothing, but pointed to me. He took me by the hand, and led me out into the middle of the street, and, turning me slowly round, exposed me to the view of those who attended the vendue. I was soon surrounded by strange men, who examined and handled me in the same manner that a butcher would a calf or a lamb he was about to purchase. The bidding started at a few pounds, and gradually rose to £57. The people who stood by said that I had fetched a great sum for so young a slave. I then saw my sisters led forth, and sold to different owners. When the sale was over, my mother hugged and kissed us, and mourned over us, begging us to keep a good heart. It was a sad parting; one went one way, one another...”
The book attracted a libel lawsuit from John Wood, who published an article in Blackwood’s Magazine stating the author had “endeavoured to injure the character of my family by the most vile and infamous falsehoods”.
Mary Prince stood firm and appeared for her own defence in court, testifying to the truth of her account, but lost the case, only to win a subsequent battle with her publishers against slavery supporters James MacQueen and James Curtin.
She passed away in 1833 but, five years later, the Slavery Abolition Act was passed, freeing 800,000 slaves in the colonies, an event that could never have been brought to pass without her courage and that of her fellow abolitionists.
HAVE you noticed Google’s homepage artwork of a woman reading a book on a beach surrounded by seagulls?
Google Doodles are special logos featured on the search engine’s homepage that commemorate holidays, events and people – today’s is British slave abolitionist Mary Prince.
Courtesy of Caribbean Literature 6 Mary Prince was a British slavery abolitionist whose 230th birthday is being celebrated today
Who was Mary Prince?
Mary Prince was born into slavery in Bermuda around 1788. She was sold away from her family when she was ten years old.
Mary suffered extreme cruelty and sexual abuse at the hands of wicked slave masters on several West Indian islands.
For many years she was forced to work up to her waist in salt ponds all day every day while manufacturing salt.
This gruelling work caused sun blisters to form on exposed parts of the body, along with painful boils and sores on the legs.
6 Today's Google Doodle features a painting of Mary reading a book on a seafront
Was Mary Prince married?
Whilst she was in Antigua Mary met a widower, Daniel Jones, a former black slave who managed to purchase his freedom and now worked as a carpenter.
Jones asked Mary to marry him and she agreed.
When Mary’s owner John Wood found out she was married, he was so enraged he dealt her a severe beating with a horsewhip.
nubianjak 6 The author and activist is commemorated with a plaque on the front of a house in Camden, London
How did Mary Prince come to England?
In 1828, at the age of 40, Mary was shipped over from Antigua to England by Mr and Mrs Wood.
Slavery was still legal in the West Indies, but no longer in Britain itself.
Once in London, Mary left her Woods owners and joined the Anti-Slavery Society founded by William Wilberforce.
But the Woods refused to formally emancipate her meaning if she returned to Antigua she would be re-enslaved there.
Hulton Archive - Getty 6 Mary joined the Anti-Slavery Society, founded and headed by William Wilberforce
Why did Mary Prince write an autobiography?
One year after she landed on British soil, Mary unsuccessfully petitioned parliament for her freedom so she could return to her husband in Antigua - and not be instantly enslaved upon arrival.
She told abolitionist sympathisers such as Thomas Pringle her life story.
It was then published in 1831 as The History of Mary Prince.
Two libel cases arose out of it, and Prince was called to testify at each in 1933.
It attracted a huge readership when the anti-slavery movement was mounting a powerful and successful campaign to free slaves.
Getty - Contributor 6 An artist's impression of a scene aboard a slave ship
How did Mary Prince die?
Unfortunately there is not much known about the rest of Mary’s life.
She was last hear of in the UK when she testified in the two libel cases.
Her place of death remains a mystery and no one knows if she was able to return to her husband in Antigua as a free woman.
On 26 October 2007, a commemorative plaque organised by the Nubian Jak Community Trust was unveiled in Bloomsbury, where Mary Prince once lived.
What is a Google Doodle?
In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second 'o' of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.
The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.
In that same year, a turkey was added to Thanksgiving and two pumpkins appeared as the 'o's for Halloween the following year.
Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.
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Among the Doodles published in 2018 were ones commemorating cartographer Abraham Ortelius, Egyptian actor Omar Sharif and St Patrick's Day.
And of course there was a whole series for the football World Cup in Russia.
Earlier in the year, the search giant celebrated the Paralympics in 2018 in Pyeongchang with an animated design celebrating each of the sports the winter Paralympians competes in.
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Google is celebrating the 230th birthday of Mary Prince with a new doodle .
The campaigner helped turn public opinion against the slave trade following the publication of the History of Mary Prince, an account of her time as a slave .
Mary Prince was born in 1788 in Brackish Pond, Bermuda - then a British colony.
Her early years were spent being sold from master to master, ending up on the the island of Antigua in 1815 where she joined the Moravian Church and learned to read and write.
In December 1826, she wed former salve Daniel James but was punished by her master for marrying a free black man.
Two years later she was separated from her husband after her family took her to live in England.
The UK had abolished slavery on home soil after the passage of the Slave Trade Act in 1808 but had allowed the cruel practice to continue overseas.
Without the means to support herself, Prince was unable to return to the West Indies and risked being sold back into slavery if she left Britain.
In 1829 Prince became the first woman to present a petition to Parliament, arguing for her human right to freedom.
That same year some of her associates in the anti-slavery “abolitionist” movement introduced a bill proposing that any West Indian slave brought to England by his or her owners must be freed.
It did not pass, but momentum was beginning to shift in favor of the abolitionist cause.
Two years later Prince published her autobiography, making her the first black woman to publish a slave narrative in England.
Her book played a decisive role in turning British public opinion against the centuries-old institution of human enslavement.
“I have been a slave myself,” Prince wrote in The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave. “I know what slaves feel—I can tell by myself what other slaves feel, and by what they have told me.
The man that says slaves be quite happy in slavery—that they don't want to be free—that man is either ignorant or a lying person. I never heard a slave say so.”
Published in 1831, the book caused a sensation, going through three printings in the first year alone.
In one of the book’s many heartbreaking passages, Mary recalled being sold “like sheep or cattle” on the same day as her younger sisters Hannah and Dina were sold to different masters.
“When the sale was over, my mother hugged and kissed us, and mourned over us, begging of us to keep up a good heart, and do our duty to our new masters.
"It was a sad parting; one went one way, one another, and our poor mammy went home with nothing.”
Two lawsuits for libel were filed against the book’s publisher in 1833, and Mary Prince testified at both, effectively rebuking any claims that the book was inaccurate or defamatory.
After that there is no record of her movements—she may have stayed in England or returned home to her husband in Bermuda.
On August 1, 1838, some 800,000 slaves living in British colonies throughout the Caribbean were finally set free, following the passage of Great Britain’s Slavery Abolition Act, which was passed by Parliament two years after the publication of Mary Prince’s book.
Mary Prince is one of the first people to raise the slavery narrative a sitting British government, and her 230th birthday is today celebrated by Google’s Doodle. Born in 1787 - 1788, Ms Prince was born at the height of the slave trade, and forced to work as a slave for most of her life. Slave trade routes were established just a few decades before Ms Prince’s birth, and when she was born the practice was at its height. Having known nothing outside of her time as a slave, a Mary’s experience led her to become a leading figure in turning the tide against the brutal practice.
Mary Prince was born to enslaved parents in Bermuda around 1787, at the time still a British territory. She lived out much of her time as a household slave under John Adams Wood Jr., a merchant rentier, who rented slaves to other slave-owners. After 18 years interned under him, she married a free black man Daniel James, but was forced to move to London with the Woods family just over a year later. Mrs Prince decided she wanted to return to the Antigua for her husband, however Mr Woods was unwilling to free her to Antigua under any terms.
Mary Prince - Google Doodle celebrates famed slavery abolitionist
Mary Prince- The title cover of Mrs Prince's book
A petition was drawn up to help Mrs Prince return to her home, to be presented in front of Parliament. The petition was to ensure her safe return to the West Indies as a free woman. With the assistance of Thomas Pringle, whom she met at the Anti-Slavery office in Aldermanbury, the petition was presented on 24 June 1829. As the first of its kind, the petition was unsuccessful, and the Woods family later moved back to Antigua without her.
