玛丽·平斯

玛丽·平斯（英语：Mary Prince；1788年—1833年）是一名英国废奴主义者及自传家。她生于百慕大，于一个被奴役的非裔家庭。在她逃离后，当她生活在伦敦时，她写了她的奴隶纪事《玛丽·平斯的历史》（公元1831年），这是首个在英国被发表的一个黑人女性的纪事。这个对奴役之残忍的亲身描述，在一个当奴隶制仍然于百慕大和英国加勒比海殖民地是合法的的时间被发表，对反奴隶制运动有着刺激性作用。其在其被发表后的一年内被重印了两次。

Mary Prince (c. 1 October 1788 – after 1833) was the first black woman to publish an autobiography of her experience as a slave, born in the colony of Bermuda to an enslaved family of African descent. After being sold a number of times and being moved around the Caribbean, she was brought to England as a servant in 1828, and later left her enslaver.

Prince was illiterate, but while she was living in London she dictated her life story to Susanna Strickland, a young lady living in the home of Thomas Pringle, secretary of the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions (aka Anti-Slavery Society, 1823–1838). Strickland wrote down her slave narrative which was published as The History of Mary Prince in 1831, the first account of the life of a Black enslaved woman to be published in the United Kingdom. This first-hand description of the brutalities of enslavement, published at a time when slavery was still legal in Bermuda and British Caribbean colonies, had a galvanising effect on the British anti-slavery movement. It was reprinted twice in its first year.

Early life and education

Mary Prince was born enslaved at Brackish Pond, Devonshire Parish, Bermuda. Her father (whose only given name was Prince) was a sawyer enslaved by David Trimmingham, and her mother a house-servant held by Charles Myners. She had three younger brothers and two sisters, Hannah and Dinah. When Myners died in 1788, Mary Prince, her mother and siblings were sold as household servants to Captain George Darrell. He gave Mary and her mother to his daughter, with Mary becoming the companion servant of his young granddaughter, Betsey Williams.

At the age of 12, Mary was sold for £38 sterling (2021: ~£3,300; ~US$4,500) to Captain John Ingham, of Spanish Point. Her two sisters were also sold that same day, all to different slave traders. Mary's new enslaver and his wife were cruel and often lost their tempers, and Mary and others were often severely flogged for minor offences.

Mary Prince was sold before 1803 at auction for £100 Bermudian currency by Robert Darell. The Bermudians had used slaves seasonally for a century for the extraction of salt from sea water. The production of salt for export was a pillar of the Bermudian economy, but the production was labour-intensive. Originally, raking had been performed by whites due to the fear of enslaved people being seized by Spanish and French raiders (enslaved persons were considered property, and could be seized as such during hostilities). Blacks crewed the Bermuda sloops that delivered the rakers to and from the Turks Islands and delivered salt to markets in North America, engaging in maritime activities while the whites raked. When the threats posed by the Spanish and French in the region decreased; however, the enslaved people were put to work in the salt pans.

As a child Mary worked in poor conditions in the salt ponds up to her knees in water. Due to the nature of salt mining, Mary and others were often forced to work up to 17 hours straight as owners of the ponds were concerned that if the workers were gone for too long rain would come and soil the salt. Generally, men were the salt rakers, forced to work in the salt ponds, where they were exposed to the sun and heat, as well as the salt in the pans, which ate away at their uncovered legs. Women did the easier packaging of salt.

Mary Prince was returned to Bermuda in 1812, where Robert Darrell had moved with his daughter. While here, she said in her account that she was physically abused by Darrell and forced to bathe him under threat of further beatings. Mary resisted Darrell's abuse on two occasions: once, in defence of his daughter, whom he also beat; the second time, defending herself from Darrell when he beat her for dropping kitchen utensils. After this, she left his direct service and was hired out to Cedar Hill for a time, where she earned money for her enslaver by washing clothes.