Page 240
“…Ankey or Anky…”
There are two versions of Anarcha’s name, both linking her to William L. Maury. The first is from her case record at Woman’s Hospital, dating from December 1856, and the other is from the farm book of William G. Maury, dated a few months later, March 1857. For whatever reason (and I discovered other women named Anarcha in Virginia who also went by “Ankey” or “Anky”), the Maurys called Anarcha by a diminutive form of her name.
From page twenty-six of the first of three surviving case record books of Woman’s Hospital. The books are held at the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. Medical Archives and Mount Sinai Records office at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, New York.
The farm book of William G. Maury, kept at Old Mansion for many decades after the family divested itself of the property, is now in the possession of Steve Nicklin, a former owner of Old Mansion. I’m very grateful to Mr. Nicklin for making the farm book, and many other Old Mansion materials, available to me.
“…paddarollers or paddy rollers…”
Narratives of Marriah Hines and Minnie Fulkes.
Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Virginia Narratives, Vol. 1, p. 29, 12.
“…it was a remit.”
Narrative of Charles Crawley.
Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Virginia Narratives, Vol. 1, p. 9.
“…packing mud into hollow logs…”
Narrative of Betty Jones.
Perdue, C. L., Barden, T. E., & Phillips, R. K. (1997). Weevils in the wheat: Interviews with Virginia ex-slaves. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, p. 180.
Betty Jones
“…suspended from the rafters…”
Narrative of Minnie Fulkes.
Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Virginia Narratives, Vol. 1, p. 11.
Minnie Fulkes
“…a story of two young slaves…”
Narrative of Richard Slaughter.
Library of Congress. (2018). Slave narratives: A folk history of slavery in the U.S., Virginia Narratives, Vol. 1, p. 48.
Richard Slaughter
“…Orange and Alexandria…”
“General Map of the Orange & Alexandria Rail Road and its Connections North, South, and West,” held in the “Railroad Maps, 1828-1900” collection at the Library of Congress.
“…Richard Maury…”
See “…retrieve his young second cousin,” above.
Richard B. Maury of Memphis, TN, chose to study medicine at UVA, and eventually became a gynecologist, just at the time Sims was achieving wide renown in New York, and just as his a member of his family came to acquire Sims’s most celebrated experimental subject. (R.B. Maury would also do an internship, achieve a second medical degree, and eventually work at Bellevue in New York.) My depiction of the interaction between R.B. Maury and Anarcha is speculative, but I think it’s very likely—at the least—that he would have taken an interest in her, and would have seized the opportunity to encounter her. I have this exchange taking place about a month after Sims’s Woman’s Hospital opened its doors.
“A Long Life Devoted To The Public Health,” The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN), December 18, 1977.