Collect Day #27, NANCY GARDNER PRINCE
O Word which became flesh and dwelt among us: we lift up today Nancy Gardner Prince, author, courageous educator, protector of orphans, business woman and world traveler who proudly shared her story and heritage in brilliant clarity; may we be inspired by her tireless efforts to help those in need regardless of their heritage so that all division may be erased from your beautiful world; this we ask in the Name of him who call us all God’s children, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
DAY #27, March 16, 2018
Henniker
NANCY GARDNER PRINCE
(1799– c. 1856)
Edith Butler
Image from a project by SARA GEORGINI, click here for more information
A Black Woman’s Odyssey Through Russia and Jamaica: The Narrative of Nancy Prince, first published in 1850, is one of the few surviving autobiographical accounts by a free Black woman in the pre-Civil War North. Nancy Gardner Prince’s life ranges from her birth in Newburyport, Mass., to the palace of a Russian Czar, to Jamaica at its turbulent end of slavery.
Nancy’s family was among about 6,500 free African Americans living in Massachusetts. Thus, Nancy grew up among a variety of cultures. Some of her family were servants to well-to-do New Englanders, which brought them in contact with the manners and culture of prosperous and learned Whites. At home, her grandfather and her mother’s third husband — both “stolen from Africa” — told the children proud tales of life there. And Nancy and her siblings were entertained with stories of the seafaring life—a common occupation among free African American men.
Her father, Thomas Gardner, a freeman, was a seaman from Nantucket who died when Nancy was three months old. Her mother was the daughter of slaves, had a Native American grandmother and married several times. Always on the brink of poverty, the death of Nancy’s second stepfather was an economic disaster that contributed to her mother’s physical and emotional breakdown. Nancy and her six younger siblings, all under age 14, worked tirelessly—not just doing the laundry, cooking and cleaning, but also catching and selling fish and picking and selling berries—to help support the family. Nancy writes that she and her siblings stayed with their mother “until every resource [was] exhausted.” Eventually, the children were placed in homes as servants for White families, except for Nancy’s younger brother who went to sea.
Nancy Gardner’s life changes dramatically again when she married Nero Prince in 1824. Her narrative gives no details of how they met or their courtship. Mr. Prince arrives from Russia on Feb. 15, 1824. They marry, and on April 14 they embark for Russia where Nero worked as a footman at the court of Czar Alexander.
Mrs. Prince covers vividly the dramatic events she witnesses while her husband served in the Czar’s court. She writes that she started a children’s clothing business, started an orphanage and learned Russian and some French. When Nancy’s health began to decline in 1833 she returned to America. Her husband was to follow but died in Russia.
In Boston, Nancy uses her skills as a seamstress to start a business. She also participated in activities of the bi-racial Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and gave public lectures about her travels and her life in Russia. In 1840 and 1842 Nancy decided to go to Jamaica to help establish schools and spiritual programs for freed children. Unfortunately, the Jamaican apprentice plan started breaking down, leading to a breakdown of order and a certain amount for chaos for those like Mrs. Prince, coming to establish programs. What Mrs. Prince described as “deceitful” and “mercenary” missionaries flooded the island and began to make her work difficult and dangerous. She left Jamaica. Nevertheless, despite the disappointing outcome of her Jamaica project and a health-breaking and a perilous trip home, she was committed to anti-slavery work.
Back in Boston, she fell on hard times, living on the kindness of friends. But not wanting to be a burden, she decided to write her memoirs, hoping to support herself at least in part from the sales. The book was published in 1850, a second edition in 1853, followed by a third in 1856. Her narratives provide vivid evocative, eyewitness accounts of the unique experiences of this intrepid, African American woman. Nothing is yet known of the circumstances of Nancy Prince’s death.
