Mary Prince, Grand Turk, and Antigua

Abstract

The History of Mary Prince, A West-Indian Slave, Related by Herself, published in 1831 under the auspices of London's Anti-Slavery Society, is of great historical importance because of the rich details it gives about various aspects of enslavement. Its author, Mary Prince, was born in 1788 in Bermuda. She had five owners and was enslaved in three British Overseas Territories – Bermuda, Grand Turk Island and Antigua – before self-manumission in London in 1828. Prince is the earliest known freed black West Indian woman to author such a testimony. Susanna Strickland (later Moodie), a young abolitionist and skilled writer working with the Anti-Slavery Society, compiled the narrative which was a bestseller going to print three times in its first year of publication. It was also a valuable part of the abolitionists' strategy to attract public support for the abolitionist movement of the day. Investigation and authentication of the History's historical dimensions, such as physical remnants of sites where Prince was enslaved and listings in the Slave Registers of Former British Overseas Territories, may put to rest suspicion that it was exaggerated or partially fabricated by abolitionists. Much of this work has been completed in Bermuda but little has been done with regard to Grand Turk Island and Antigua, although Prince spent more than half her life enslaved in those two islands. This article outlines preliminary findings in both territories.