In January 1850, an enslaved woman named Sarah Ann, accompanied by her 7-year-old daughter Mary and “far advanced in pregnancy” with another child, escaped from Northern Virginia to upstate New York by hiding for 20 days under the false bottom of a produce wagon traveling north. They were aided in their escape by Lewinsville Presbyterian Church members Cyrus and Seth Osborne, who had hired Sarah Ann’s labor during the previous year. On Lewinsville’s Anniversary Sunday, George Mason University Ph.D. Candidate Annabelle Spencer will tell us about her research into Sarah Ann’s pursuit of freedom for herself and her children and their ties to other members of the Lewinsville community, enslaved and free.
