Jessie Morgan-Owens Presents “Girl in Black and White: Mary Mildred Williams and the Abolition Movement”

In conversation with Alexis Coe
Co-sponsored by the Victorian Society

Greenlight welcomes Jessie Morgan-Owens to present her new book Girl in Black and White. 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. During a sold-out abolitionist lecture series, Senator Charles Sumner paraded Mary in front of rapt audiences as evidence that slavery knew no bounds. Weaving together long-overlooked primary sources and arresting images, including the daguerreotype that turned Mary into the poster child of a movement, Jessie Morgan-Owens investigates tangled generations of sexual enslavement and the fraught politics that led Mary to Sumner. She restores Mary’s story to history and uncovers a dramatic narrative of travels along the Underground Railroad, relationships tested by oppression, and the struggles of life after emancipation. Morgan-Owens presents her book in conversation with Alexis Coe, historian and author of Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis. Greenlight is grateful to the Victorian Society for their help in publicizing this event.











When: Wed., Mar. 20, 2019 at 7:30 pm
Where: Greenlight Bookstore
686 Fulton St.
718-246-0200
Price: Free
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In conversation with Alexis Coe
Co-sponsored by the Victorian Society

Greenlight welcomes Jessie Morgan-Owens to present her new book Girl in Black and White. 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. During a sold-out abolitionist lecture series, Senator Charles Sumner paraded Mary in front of rapt audiences as evidence that slavery knew no bounds. Weaving together long-overlooked primary sources and arresting images, including the daguerreotype that turned Mary into the poster child of a movement, Jessie Morgan-Owens investigates tangled generations of sexual enslavement and the fraught politics that led Mary to Sumner. She restores Mary’s story to history and uncovers a dramatic narrative of travels along the Underground Railroad, relationships tested by oppression, and the struggles of life after emancipation. Morgan-Owens presents her book in conversation with Alexis Coe, historian and author of Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis. Greenlight is grateful to the Victorian Society for their help in publicizing this event.

Buy tickets/get more info now