Page 208
“…they would leave Richmond in the morning.”
See “One afternoon in 1855…,” above. Documentary evidence establishes that Anarcha was owned by Nathan Harris, owned in trust by his wife Margaret, and then perhaps passed to Margaret’s sister Catherine, married to Thomas Addis Emmet, before being purchased by William L. Maury. Transactions involving enslaved people were not always carefully recorded, and there is no bill of sale between these parties, though documents indicate the transfer of ownership indirectly. In imagining how and when the Maury family became aware of Anarcha at the Egyptian Building, I noticed that Matthew Fontaine Maury had access to the building’s basement laboratory, which was a highly likely location for Anarcha’s quarters. I have allowed that Matthew Fontaine Maury was the vector of ownership—this is, of course, speculative, but it is very much in keeping with what can be demonstrated unequivocally. It is possible, though far less likely, that the Maurys learned of Anarcha through some other route.
“…to be free for a day…”
Narrative of W.S. Debnam.
Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., North Carolina Narratives, Vol. 1, p. 246.
W.S. Debnam
“…he would give a talk to students…”
As will be seen shortly, Matthew Fontaine Maury delivered an address at the University of Virginia on June 28, 1855. See “…they would leave Richmond in the morning,” above.
“…retrieve his young second cousin.”
The cousin, R.B. Maury, would go on to become a gynecologist and a colleague of Sims’s, sometimes appearing at the same conferences. After Sims died, R.B. Maury would be among a handful of surgeons in the country calling for statue to Sims to be erected in New York City (image from the Medical Record, which printed this list of names many times over between 1884 and 1892, approximately).
Speer, W. S. (1997). Sketches of prominent Tennesseans: Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee. Greenville, S.C: Southern Historical Press, p. 77.
The Evening Telegraph, October 26, 1868, p. 3.
“…a large glass for looking at stars…”
Maury had been living at the Observatory for some time at this point.
Williams, F. L. (1963). Matthew Fontaine Maury: Scientist of the sea. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, p. 162.