From Slave Ship to Harvard Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family

by Johnston, James H.

• ISBN13: 9780823239504
• ISBN10: 0823239500
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-14
• Publisher: Fordham University Press

Summary

From Slave Ship to Harvard is the true story of an African American family in Maryland over six generations. The author has reconstructed a unique narrative of black struggle and achievement from paintings, photographs, books, diaries, court records, legal documents, and oral histories. FromSlave Ship to Harvard traces the family from the colonial period and the American Revolution through the Civil War to Harvard and finally today. Yarrow Mamout, the first of the family in America, was an educated Muslim from Guinea. He was brought to Maryland on the slave ship Elijah and gained his freedom forty-four years later. By then, Yarrow had become so well known in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., that he attracted theattention of the eminent American portrait painter Charles Willson Peale, who captured Yarrow's visage in the painting that appears on the cover of this book. The author here reveals that Yarrow's immediate relatives - his sister, niece, wife, and son - were notable in their own right. His sonmarried into the neighboring Turner family, and the farm community in western Maryland called Yarrowsburg was named for Yarrow Mamout's daughter-in-law, Mary "Polly" Turner Yarrow. The Turner line ultimately produced Robert Turner Ford, who graduated from Harvard University in 1927. Just as Peale painted the portrait of Yarrow, James H. Johnston's new book puts a face on slavery and paints the history of race in Maryland. It is a different picture from what most of us imagine. Relationships between blacks and whites were far more complex, and the races more dependent on eachother. Fortunately, as this one family's experience shows, individuals of both races repeatedly stepped forward to lessen divisions and to move America toward the diverse society of today.

Author Biography

JAMES H. JOHNSTON, an attorney and journalist, has published extensively on national affairs, law, telecommunications, history, and the arts. His contributions include papers on local Washington, D.C., history, Yarrow Mamout, and an edition of The Recollections of Margaret Cabell Brown Loughborough.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Yarrow Mamout, a West African Muslim Slave	p. 7
Tobacco and the Importation of a Labor Force	p. 22
Welcome to America	p. 41
Slavery and Revolution	p. 52
Yarrow of Georgetown	p. 61
The Portraits: Peale, Yarrow, and Simpson	p. 81
Free Hannath, Yarrow's Sister	p. 101
Nancy Hillman, Yarrow's Niece	p. 112
Aquilla Yarrow	p. 122
Mary "Polly" Turner Yarrow	p. 132
Aquilla and Polly in Pleasant Valley	p. 140
Traces of Yarrow	p. 149
Unpleasant Valley	p. 158
Freedom	p. 177
From Harvard to Today	p. 189
Epilogue: Guide to the Yarrows' and Turners' World Today	p. 201
Notes	p. 221
Bibliography	p. 269
Acknowledgments	p. 277
Index	p. 283
Illustrations follow page	p. 182
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