What Happened When Anna Jumped from the Window: The Domestic Slave Trade in Antebellum Washington, D.C.
Keywords:
Slavery, Racism, OppressionAbstract
The woman known as Anna awakened at daybreak in November 1815 and jumped from a third floor window of a Washington, D.C. tavern. Anna’s facial features in this inexpert yet arresting engraving are shadowy. However, her dark, tightly curled hair and the contrast of her skin against the simple white cotton muslin dress make her racial identity unmistakable (Fig. 1). Her anguished leap put Anna’s picture and story in one of the earliest anti-slavery writings of the new United States. Indirectly, she launched court cases, started the American Colonization Society, inspired Congressional speeches, permitted her tavern-prison to burn to the ground, and put her jailer out of business. No one ever knew if Anna had wanted to take her own life or to escape; her only explanation was that she “did not want to go” (see caption, Fig. 1).
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References
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