Hello, my name is Maryann
and I'm a park ranger at Salem Maritime National Historic Site.
We'd like to give voice to a Black woman named Rose
who lived, loved and labored here in Salem and Essex County
from the 1780s through the early 1800s.
I'm standing in front of a three-story brick house preserved at
Salem Maritime National Historic Site.
The Derby's, a white wealthy merchant family
lived here along with the people they enslaved.
Piecing together the details of Rose's life is not easy.
In fact, we do not know if Rose ever lived here
because the Derby family moved out in the early 1780s
and Rose does not appear in the documentary record until 1788.
We know that Rose was connected to the Derby family
as her name appears on this yellowed handwritten page
tucked inside a Derby family Bible.
At the top of the page,
several short paragraphs give information about the births,
marriages and deaths of various Derby family members.
One line toward the bottom of the page simply states,
"Rose the black girl was born," which is followed by a line that is blank.
No month, date or year recorded.
This is a testament to how much more is known about the families of those
who enslaved people than about the people they held in slavery.
The page in the Bible was probably written years after Rose had lived.
The earliest mention that we have found of Rose are on these
two yellowed, handwritten receipts from the year 1788.
She would have been approximately 10 years old.
The first receipt is dated May 4th, 1788
and the second is dated August 3rd of the same year.
Remember, that it was five years earlier in 1783 that the courts in Massachusetts
would no longer uphold slavery in the state.
Next, we noticed two names just under the date,
Mrs. Derby, who is Elizabeth Crowninshield Derby,
and Hannah Masurey, who is the teacher.
On one receipt, Hannah is being paid for schooling two people.
The first person is listed as, "your Black girl."
Did you note the use
of the possessive "your" and the generic word "girl"?
Hannah probably thought nothing of writing "your Black girl,"
but this language gives us a clue about Rose's ambiguous status.
Notice that on the same receipt Betsy Browne is named.
The use of "your Black girl" instead of a name suggests
that her identity as an individual person was not important.
At the same time, Hannah fully names her
by using the word, "your" in front of "Black girl."
Not only does it suggest possession and ownership,
but there would be no question as to who Hannah meant.
Everyone would know who Mrs. Derby's "Black girl" was.
On the other receipt, Hannah is being paid for schooling Rose.
We believe that "your Black girl" and Rose refer to the same person.
This means Rose would have had at least six months of education.
Maybe after three months of teaching Rose,
Hannah knew her more as an individual and so used her name on this receipt.
Another example of Rose
being referred to as if she was owned by the Derby family
is found written in script in the 1799 last will and testament of
Elias Hasket Derby, husband to ElizabethCrowninshield Derby.
Near the end of the will can be found the line,
"I do hereby give and bequeath unto my young Negro woman Rose
the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars."
Even though the possessive was used to describe Rose, Rose was not a possession.
Rose was a person; and knowing that she had a little bit of schooling
is important as we think about her life.
By recording her name,
there is one less obstacle in tracing Rose through the archives.
We know a tiny bit about her life in Essex County,
but questions remain.
How did she come to be in Salem?
Who and where were her parents?
When did she first understand she would be treated as property?
Even though we have not found anything to date written by Rose,
Rose does appear several more times
in the documentary record.
This gives us an opportunity to learn more about her experiences
during this time of gradual emancipation in Massachusetts.