A narrative of the life and travels of Mrs Nancy Prince

  • Women's Voices and Life Writing
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Title
A narrative of the life and travels of Mrs Nancy Prince
Author
  • Prince, Nancy
Document Type
  • Printed Book
Date
1850
Biography
Nancy Gardner was born in 1799 in Massachusetts, a free African American, and grew up in a family with a long history of enslavement. From a young age, Nancy was aware of the impact of slavery as well as the bravery of self-emancipation. She met Nero Prince, second grand master of the Prince Hall Freemasons and originally from Russia, in September 1823. Less than six months later they were married. The couple moved to Russia, where Nero became a footman to Czar Alexander I and Nancy opened a boarding home and made children’s clothing. They remained there for nearly a decade until Nancy’s health forced her to return to the US. There she opened an orphanage and a sewing shop in Boston. By 1840, Nancy was a distinguished abolitionist, working against the Fugitive Slave Act and being part of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. She took two missionary trips to Jamaica, where she worked against slavery and to raise funds for a free labour school there. Nancy wrote about her travels in Russia and Jamaica in her autobiography A Narrative of the Life and Travels of Mrs Nancy Prince, which she published in 1850. She passed away in November 1859.
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