Mary(c1830-1853)and Emily Edmonson (c1833-?) were among more than seventy African Americans attempting to flee slavery on the Pearl in 1848. After the ship was caught in the Chesapeake Bay, the sisters were sold to slave traders and shipped to New Orleans. When they were sent back to Alexandria, VA, to escape an epidemic, abolitionists and their father raised money to redeem them. They attended school in NY and at Oberlin College. After Mary's tragic death, Emily returned to DC where she taught with Myrtilla Miner.