Nancy Gardner was born on September 15th, 1799 in Newburyport. She was the granddaughter of a Native American woman and an African veteran of the American Revolution and the stepdaughter of an African sailor. When Nancy was young, she worked as a servant for white families or sold berries with her brother to support the family. Nancy worked in Boston for several years, where she lived in dire poverty. On September 1st, 1823 she met Nero Prince, when he arrived in Boston. One year later, on February 14th, they both got married and moved to St. Petersburg, where her husband was employed as a court servant. There she spent about nine years becoming a small-business woman and working for religious and social reform among Protestants. In 1833 Nancy Prince returned to the United States in search of a milder climate and by 1840 was widowed but at the same time she was also impressed by the possibilities for black self- determination in the wake of West Indian emancipation. She was bound for Jamaica as a missionary, equipped with a particular commitment to improving the well- being of ex-slave women and children. She always found great support in God. After her return to the United States Nancy became active in abolitionist circles, arriving at the Fifth National Women’s Rights Convention in Pihladelphia to protest against the mistreatment of slave women. Nancy Prince also established a free labor school for black orphans, who should have equal rights to education. Despite these efforts and the publication of her autobiography, Nancy never seemed able to rise above poverty, and by the year 1857 she disappeared from public notice.
Hypothesis
Nancy Prince is her own subject and object of mobility. However, certain parameters of travel, especially religion and her ethnicity determined her journey in a way that made her envisionise a society with diasporic consciousness that lives without discrimination and equal chances in education.
Prince´s mobility was voluntary, however, her motives were drawn by labor and family or later on community. It is notable that in Prince´s lifetime, mobility was mainly asserted by the white population. In the light of Cherly Fish´s definition of `mobile subjectivity` that describes not only the shift of people in between landscapes but also the shift of institutions and culture, Prince´s later travels can be seen as a missionary (Nayar 2009). In contrast to that, her early travels were not marked by agency. When Prince grew up and felt the urge (maybe the pressure was also set externally) to take financial care of her family, her mobility was constituted by poverty. The moment that Prince took matters into her own hands and decided to go somewhere she especially chose to go was the moment that she moved out of agency. She went from poverty and an unhappy childhood to choosing her occupation and living self-determined (Nayar 2009).
Self-determination and agency also show when Prince decided to go after her sister to ´safe´ her from her unhappy life working as a prostitute. It seems as if not only her sister, but her family, in general, were a great burden. In particular, the men she encountered, such as her step-dad, the new husband of her mother, or her brother, for example, who disappointed her by being abusive, being financially demanding or not caring enough. Prince´s narrative generally is characterized by negative associations with men. (Foster 2013) However, in her perception, the picture of a functioning family is conveyed when strong men take responsibility for it (Nayar 2009). She strives to be different than those men who disappointed her and draws strength from her identity as a woman to be mobile. Her experiences and being female enabled her to act divergent and be responsible. Prince gains full mobility of agency by deciding to travel without depending on her family (Foster 2013).
Agency also is provided by the movement to Russia and being married to Nero Prince. In Russia she was free to labor in a field she choose, namely boarding children and making children’s clothes. Her engagement was not gender-stereotypical, nevertheless, it was accepted. To Nancy Prince´s surprise, also her skin color did not matter in St. Petersburg.
“ […] there was no prejudice against color; there were there all casts, and the people of all nations, each in their place“
During her time in Russia, Prince also came into contact with religious actions that she did not agree with and questioned certain gender- or class-based practices. Realizing that she was not able to change society, especially because of political and social disagreements, Prince decided to move back to the United States. Again, we can detect mobility of agency, because she does not rely on men (her husband for instance) anymore and travels solely for her motives. Back in her home country, Prince tried to implement her plan to help in creating a society with diasporic consciousness. She founded a community that was supposed to take care of African-American children. Unfortunately, the community did not last. Ultimately, she went to Jamaica and found racial and social injustices. This time she decided to do something about it and planned on establishing Free labor schools for girls. In Jamaica Prince also comes into contact with the so-called Maroons. From her perspective, their way of living displays a model of a utopian society whose members are black women and men (former slaves) who are independent and do not need white authorities (Foster 2013). For her, mobility plays a huge role in becoming independent. In Prince´s perception, the help of God also is required to achieve equality and independence. Throughout the book, Prince often critically questions the ways Christianity is practiced.
Through traveling Nancy Prince saw that freedom was not available for black women in the same way it was for white women. Especially through the tensions between woman as a private domestic subject and woman as a public reformer, between the textual image of a black woman who is Jamaican and American at the same time, coming home to her Jamaican family and in the end between individual desire and duty to community, visualizes the challenges Nancy Prince has to cope with. God and her faith in it were always by her side and gave her the support that she needed.Of course, obstacles such as discrimination did not make her life any easier, but she published her autobiography to show that she is not only able to work, but is also a traveler, woman, missionary or widow who advocates equal education for everyone.
Sources:
Andrews, Larry. “TWO BLACK WOMEN IN RUSSIA: TACIT RACIAL IDENTITY AND THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT.” CLA Journal, vol. 52, no. 4, 2009, pp. 327–52. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44325501. Accessed 29 May 2022.
Gunning, Sandra. “Nancy Prince and the Politics of Mobility, Home and Diasporic (Mis)Identification.” American Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 1, 2001, pp. 32–69. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30041872. Accessed 29 May 2022.
Kalous, Isabel. Black Travel Writing: Contemporary Narratives of Travel to Africa by African American and Black British Authors, transcript Verlag, 2021. pp. 31-48.
Prince, Nancy. A Narrative of The Life And Travels of Mrs. Nancy Prince. WM. A. HALL, 1853.
Pictures:
Cover image: https://www.nps.gov/people/nancy-prince.htm
Nancy Prince: http://hi4015epistemology.blogspot.com/2011/10/narrative-of-life-and-travels-of-mrs.html