Girl in Black and White: The Story of Mary Mildred Williams and the Abolition Movement

Download or read book Girl in Black and White: The Story of Mary Mildred Williams and the Abolition Movement written by Jessie Morgan-Owens and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “engrossing narrative history” (Joanna Scutts, The Lily) of the enslaved girl whose photograph transformed the abolition movement. When a decades-long court battle resulted in her family’s freedom in 1855, seven-year-old Mary Mildred Williams unexpectedly became the face of American slavery. Due to generations of sexual violence, Mary’s skin was so light she “passed” as white—a fact abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner knew would be the key to his white audience’s sympathy. Girl in Black and White restores Mary to her rightful place in history, “probing issues of colorism and racial politics” (New York Times Book Review) that still affect us profoundly today.