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Ann Maria Jackson
Ann Maria Jackson (1810–January 28, 1880) was an enslaved woman with nine children who ran away from her enslaver in November 1858 after two of her eldest children had been sold. Her husband became mentally ill and died in a poor house. After finding out that four more of her children were about to be sold, she gathered the seven children who were with her and traveled along the Underground Railroad for Canada. She went through the way of Wilmington, then to Philadelphia, later to St. Catharines, and then to Toronto. This was rare as she had brought her seven children with her through the Underground Railroad. It was difficult for women to run away secretly. The Jacksons established new lives for themselves in Toronto. Her two eldest children later reunited with the family, and the youngest, Albert Jackson, became the first African American to work as a letter carrier in Toronto.
Ann Maria Jackson, born about 1810, was described as a pleasant, intelligent, and attractive woman. She was enslaved by James Brown, who was a hard-drinking, wealthy widower. She had nine children with her husband John Jackson, a free blacksmith, and they lived in Milford, Delaware. According to the law (partus sequitur ventrem), children born to an enslaved women were the property of her slaveholder, which meant that John Jackson had no legal control over the welfare of his children.
Jackson was allowed to live with her husband while her children were young, saving Brown the cost of providing food for the family. Brown got a share of her earnings when she worked as a laundress or whitewashed buildings. As the children grew up they became valuable property; Brown could hire them out and keep the wages, or he could sell them outright. Jackson said, "It almost broke my heart when he came and took my children as soon as they were big enough to hand me a drink of water." She worked to ensure that her children had enough to eat and she worried that at any moment her children could be taken by their owner. Over the years, she tried to convince her husband to run away with their children, but John did not think that he could make the trip.
In 1858, the Jackson's two eldest children—James and Richard—were sold away from the family. John, upset about their sale, went insane. John died in the poor house that fall. Soon after, she found out that Brown intended to sell four more of her children away to Vicksburg, Mississippi and she quickly made plans to runaway, to find "some part of the world where she could have the control and comfort of her children".
Jackson set out with seven of her children, aged between two and sixteen, in mid-November 1858. She traveled along the Underground Railroad, knowing that federal laws like the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed runaway slaves to be chased, captured, and returned to their slaveholders. Between 1850 and 1860, 15,000 to 20,000 blacks migrated to Canada, where slavery was abolished in 1834 with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
It was a difficult journey for the family to make and for Underground Railroad operatives to coordinate. Thomas Garrett noted that, with young children in the group, they could not walk far on foot. It was difficult for them to cross the canal near the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, which was closely watched for runaway slaves. Thomas Garrett, just outside of Wilmington, Delaware, arranged for a horse-drawn carriage that took them part of the way to Philadelphia. A second carriage took them across the Mason–Dixon line to Chester County in the free state of Pennsylvania.
They stopped at the Riverview House, the home of Thomas Garrett's brother Edward in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania (west of Philadelphia). The Jacksons were taken to Philadelphia, where they met William Still, an Underground Railroad stationmaster. He interviewed Jackson and her children so that he could record their stories in his Underground Rail Road book.
The fire of freedom obviously burned with no ordinary fervor in the breast of this slave mother, or she never would have ventured with the burden of seven children, to escape from the hell of Slavery.
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Ann Maria Jackson
Ann Maria Jackson (1810–January 28, 1880) was an enslaved woman with nine children who ran away from her enslaver in November 1858 after two of her eldest children had been sold. Her husband became mentally ill and died in a poor house. After finding out that four more of her children were about to be sold, she gathered the seven children who were with her and traveled along the Underground Railroad for Canada. She went through the way of Wilmington, then to Philadelphia, later to St. Catharines, and then to Toronto. This was rare as she had brought her seven children with her through the Underground Railroad. It was difficult for women to run away secretly. The Jacksons established new lives for themselves in Toronto. Her two eldest children later reunited with the family, and the youngest, Albert Jackson, became the first African American to work as a letter carrier in Toronto.
Ann Maria Jackson, born about 1810, was described as a pleasant, intelligent, and attractive woman. She was enslaved by James Brown, who was a hard-drinking, wealthy widower. She had nine children with her husband John Jackson, a free blacksmith, and they lived in Milford, Delaware. According to the law (partus sequitur ventrem), children born to an enslaved women were the property of her slaveholder, which meant that John Jackson had no legal control over the welfare of his children.
Jackson was allowed to live with her husband while her children were young, saving Brown the cost of providing food for the family. Brown got a share of her earnings when she worked as a laundress or whitewashed buildings. As the children grew up they became valuable property; Brown could hire them out and keep the wages, or he could sell them outright. Jackson said, "It almost broke my heart when he came and took my children as soon as they were big enough to hand me a drink of water." She worked to ensure that her children had enough to eat and she worried that at any moment her children could be taken by their owner. Over the years, she tried to convince her husband to run away with their children, but John did not think that he could make the trip.
In 1858, the Jackson's two eldest children—James and Richard—were sold away from the family. John, upset about their sale, went insane. John died in the poor house that fall. Soon after, she found out that Brown intended to sell four more of her children away to Vicksburg, Mississippi and she quickly made plans to runaway, to find "some part of the world where she could have the control and comfort of her children".
Jackson set out with seven of her children, aged between two and sixteen, in mid-November 1858. She traveled along the Underground Railroad, knowing that federal laws like the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed runaway slaves to be chased, captured, and returned to their slaveholders. Between 1850 and 1860, 15,000 to 20,000 blacks migrated to Canada, where slavery was abolished in 1834 with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
It was a difficult journey for the family to make and for Underground Railroad operatives to coordinate. Thomas Garrett noted that, with young children in the group, they could not walk far on foot. It was difficult for them to cross the canal near the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, which was closely watched for runaway slaves. Thomas Garrett, just outside of Wilmington, Delaware, arranged for a horse-drawn carriage that took them part of the way to Philadelphia. A second carriage took them across the Mason–Dixon line to Chester County in the free state of Pennsylvania.
They stopped at the Riverview House, the home of Thomas Garrett's brother Edward in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania (west of Philadelphia). The Jacksons were taken to Philadelphia, where they met William Still, an Underground Railroad stationmaster. He interviewed Jackson and her children so that he could record their stories in his Underground Rail Road book.
The fire of freedom obviously burned with no ordinary fervor in the breast of this slave mother, or she never would have ventured with the burden of seven children, to escape from the hell of Slavery.