A Black History Month story. This is Cornelia Williams Read, later Gould, my 3rd great-grandmother. She and my 4th gg were enslaved on Rice Hope Plantation in South Carolina, ~30 miles north of Charleston. 1/
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Thank you for this wonderful thread. The photos really bring it to life. I’m so glad your family and you have been able to uncover and preserve this history.
I have ancestors from Nantucket, so the way Nantucket was involved in this story was particularly interesting to me.
I’m so glad that someone happened by to take that photo of you there. I went over on a day trip with my parents when I was in college, but was only able to sightsee around town and didn’t visit any of the family sites.
My 3rd ggrandfather (a Swain) was born in New Bedford but his father was born on Nantucket. His wife (a Winslow) was born on Nantucket. He worked on whaling ships before he went out to the midwest.
There are also some stories that suggest Cornelia and Diana were free at some point before coming north, but the story is unclear. Diana *did* have two (possibly half-) sisters, Ann and Julia in the north. Julia Ward Williams is said to have been born free in Charleston, for example. 2/
I have seen the newspaper accounts of Julia and Ann’s acceptance to a private school in Rhode Island, later rescinded when white people freaked out about it. But they did attend other schools. Julia eventually married abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Highland_Garnet 3/
At some point, Diana and Cornelia were to be sold, either back into slavery or from Rice Hope to somewhere else, and possibly to be separated. Ann and James raised money throughout the northeast, with significant help from the Quakers, and even the Duchess of Sutherland in England. 5/
I’m not sure when Cornelia’s portrait was taken, but apparently a painting of Cornelia (and maybe of Diana) was shipped to England to inspire sympathy and raise money. Diana was brought to Nantucket somehow in 1858. 6/
The Reverend Crawford himself posed as a white man and traveled south to purchase Cornelia’s freedom and bring her back. Afterward he would give talks around New England about the ordeal. 7/
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I have ancestors from Nantucket, so the way Nantucket was involved in this story was particularly interesting to me.