Girl in Black and White: The Story of Mary Mildred Williams and the Abolition Movement

An engrossing narrative history (Joanna Scutts, The Lily) of the enslaved girl whose photograph transformed the abolition movement.When a decades-long court battle resulted in her familys freedom in 1855, seven-year-old Mary Mildred Williams unexpectedly became the face of American slavery. Due to generations of sexual violence, Marys skin was so light she passed as whitea fact abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner knew would be the key to his white audiences sympathy. Girl in Black and White restores Mary to her rightful place in history, probing issues of colorism and racial politics (New York Times Book Review) that still affect us profoundly today.