The artifact that caught my interest most at 500 Years of Women’s Work: The Lisa Unger Baskin Collection, a 2020 exhibition at The Grolier Club, was a picture of a woman photographed by Jesse Torrey. The woman in the photo named Ann Williams, was jumping out of a three story building to escape from being sold into slavery. The photo was part of a book called, A Portraiture of a Domestic Slavery in the United States […]​ by Jesse Torrey. Jesse Torrey was a Philadelphian physician that conducted a series of interviews, narratives, and his own first-hand observations and turned his research into an illustrated book about slavery. His book contained events such as slave kidnappings, which was shown in the photograph of Ann Williams. Slave kidnappings, especially towards free blacks was a profitable underground business that thrived during that period of time. When Torrey heard about Ann’s story, he went to interview her. He published that interview, along with other narratives and people’s experience of abuse.

Ann Williams bravely jumped out of a three story building to escape being taken and sold to the highest bidder. Ann and her daughters were torn away from their family and sold to Georgia slave traders. After her jump, her injuries consisted of a broken back and arm. In 1816 Ann’s suicide attempt prompted a Congressional inquiry into interstate slave trade. She later petitioned for her freedom, as well as her children’s, which was successful.

The photo of Ann Williams caught my eye immediately. Before I learned the contents of the history behind the photo, I was intrigued by this woman jumping out of a building with death being a very possible outcome. After I learned who she was and what happened to her, I thought what she did was brave. Instead of just letting herself be taken away and sold, she fought for her freedom. Her actions showed courage and a resilience not everyone has. Ann Williams could have died, but she didn’t. Instead she survived and fought not only for her freedom, but the freedom of her children as well. And she won. That was an amazing story to have learned about and to physically see at the Grolier Club.

Works Cited

“Africans in America/Part 3/The Author Noting down the Narratives.” ​PBS,​ Public Broadcasting Service, ​www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h324.html​.