.jpg){kind=link}
Anna Weems watched as her brothers were sold down South. Her father had managed to purchase her mother and sister’s freedom, but their enslaver refused to sell Anna.
His plans for her were sickening.
She’d been warned about what could happen to her, but still wasn’t prepared for the horror that awaited. Weems’ enslaver even made her sleep beside him to make it easier for him to rape her.
One anguish-filled night she was finally able to escape. Enraged, her enslaver placed a $500 bounty on her head.
But Weems kept running.
The Black community hid her, even using the home of a white doctor as a safe haven. Slave catchers were everywhere, but Weems wasn’t going to give up.
She had plans of her own.
When winter began, the doctor gave her a pair of pants, a boy’s shirt, and a hat. She pretended to be the doctor’s “coachman.” At every stop, she nearly fainted from tense nerves. No one suspected a thing.
Weems eventually found her way to freedom and made it to her family in Canada. Her creativity and perseverance should inspire us all in the fight against anti-Blackness.