Nancy Gardner Prince
Nancy Gardner Prince was a notable figure in the early 19th century, recognized for her autobiography, "Narrative of the Life and Travels of Mrs. Nancy Prince," published in 1850. Born in 1799 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, she was a free Black woman who navigated the complexities of African American life during the antebellum period. Prince had a unique life trajectory, which included a marriage to Nero Prince, a servant to the czar of Russia, and a nine-year residency in St. Petersburg. Her travels provided her with rare insights, allowing her to document significant historical events such as the St. Petersburg flood and the Decembrist revolt through her personal lens.
After becoming a widow in 1833, she shifted her focus to missionary work in Jamaica, especially after the 1831 rebellion that catalyzed the movement towards emancipation. Prince's efforts included multiple trips to Jamaica to educate freed women, along with publishing a book in 1841 that described the cultural landscape of the West Indies. Later, she became involved in abolitionist movements and connected with suffragists, although she distanced herself from traditional feminist movements, emphasizing the unique challenges faced by women of color. The last known edition of her narrative was published in 1856, after which little is recorded about her life. Prince's story is significant for understanding the intersection of race, gender, and historical context in America.
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Nancy Gardner Prince
- Born: 1799
- Birthplace: Newburyport, Massachusetts
- Died: Unknown
Biography
Nancy Gardner Prince is known to contemporary scholars through her autobiography, the Narrative of the Life and Travels of Mrs. Nancy Prince, which she published in 1850. The work, an autobiographical travelogue by a free Northern black woman, is valuable in many scholarly disciplines and serves as a reminder of the complexities and difficulties of African American life during the antebellum period.
Born in 1799 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, a seaport north of Boston, Prince worked odd jobs to support her extensive family. Although her father had connections to Nantucket, a center of emancipatory activity and a connection that would influence her later work in the West Indies, he died shortly after her birth, and it is unlikely she ever lived on Nantucket.
She married a servant to the czar of Russia, Nero Prince, in 1824 and lived with him for nine years in St. Petersburg. This international travel was an uncommon experience for an American black woman in her era and is a significant feature of her travelogue. While in Russia she observed the St. Petersburg flood and the Decembrist revolt, giving a unique account of these historical events, inflected with her particular gender and racial perspective, in the Narrative.
She was widowed while visiting the United States in 1833 and did not return to Russia, instead traveling to Jamaica as a missionary shortly after the 1831 rebellion that stimulated the English vote to free the Jamaican slaves. Gardner made several trips between the West Indian island and the United States from 1840 to 1842, working mostly at a failed project to educate emancipated Jamaican women. She also wrote a book about island culture, The West Indies: Being a Description of the Islands, Progress of Christianity, Education, and Liberty Among the Colored Population Generally, published in 1841.
After ending her missionary tenure, she returned to the northeastern United States and began writing, self-publishing her autobiography in 1850 and living off the proceeds of that and a subsequent edition published in 1853. She became active in abolition and associated with the suffragists, although she did not consider herself a feminist and is an early marker of the criticism, common in scholarship from the 1980’s, that traditional feminism was not sensitive to the different experiences of women of color. The last published edition she produced of her narrative was in 1856 and nothing is known of her life after that date.