What Happened
Born into a Bermuda household, Mary Prince spends years navigating a life of forced migration and labor across the West Indies. She endures the harsh demands of the salt ponds and the volatile temperament of the Wood family in Antigua. When the Woods transport her to England in 1828, Prince finds herself on ground where the law does not recognize her status as property. She seeks assistance from the Anti-Slavery Society, but arrives at a stalemate: while she remains physically free on English soil, her owner refuses the manumission papers essential for her to return to her husband in Antigua without facing re-enslavement. Her narrative serves as a direct petition for legislative change to the entire system.
Key figures
- Mary Prince
The narrator and first woman to publish a slave narrative in England.
- John A. Wood
The owner who brought Prince to England and refused her manumission.
- Thomas Pringle
Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society and editor of the narrative.
- Anti-Slavery Society
The London-based group that provided legal aid and published the work.
What it's really about
- Legal Limbo
- Being free in one geography while a slave in another.
- Labor and Commodity
- The physical toll of salt extraction and domestic service.
Why it's memorable
- The description of the blinding white salt ponds where workers stood all day in brine.
- John Wood’s formal letter justifying his refusal to free Mary based on her 'ingratitude'.
Where it lands
The work concludes with a supplement by Louis Asa-Asa, a captured African who expresses a desire for the King of England to hear these testimonies and end slavery entirely.
For your book club
- The use of editorial supplements to 'verify' the testimony of enslaved people to a skeptical public.
- How Mary Prince uses her literacy and London's legal environment as leverage against her owners.