by Jeroslyn JoVonn
November 27, 2025
A Northern England city is honoring the Black girl who escaped slavery within the U.S. and settled there within the 1830s.
A statue honoring the “outstanding and courageous” girl who escaped slavery within the U.S. has been unveiled within the Northern England city the place she discovered her freedom.
On Nov. 20, a statue of Mary Ann Macham was unveiled on the high of the Riverside Embankment Walkway, overlooking the ocean near the place she as soon as lived in North Shields, England, BBC studies. Designed by Keith Barrett, the bronze determine stands as a testomony to Macham’s resilience and to Britain’s often-overlooked Black historical past.
“The story was so superb I simply thought we’ve received to share this extra broadly,” stated Steph Cities, a trainer who got here throughout Macham’s story along with her grandmother whereas they had been researching Britain’s position in slavery. “She was simply such a outstanding and courageous girl.”
“I noticed an image of Mary Ann and, nicely, that actually led us down fairly a little bit of a path,” Cities stated.
Mary Ann Macham, born in Middlesex County, Virginia, in Could 1802, escaped enslavement and torture after weeks hiding within the woods and stowing away on a ship, ultimately arriving in North Shields within the early 1830s. A Quaker household took her in, she married a neighborhood man, and lived within the city till her loss of life at age 91.
Her account of the escape was recorded by the Spence household, who helped her upon arrival. Years later, Cities found her story and shared it on Fb, catching the eye of Nina Brown, a trustee at North Shields’ Previous Low Gentle Heritage Centre. This led to an exhibition centered on Macham’s story and the position of a gravestone on her beforehand unmarked grave in Preston Cemetery.
A statue impressed by her life was commissioned by North Tyneside Council, with sculptor Keith Barrett taking nice pleasure within the undertaking as a North Shields native.
“I’m very happy to have been allowed to create this sculpture celebrating the lifetime of Mary Ann Macham,” Barrett stated. “It has been notably necessary to me as a result of North Shields is my house city, and I really feel honoured to have the ability to mark the bravery and insistence on freedom proven by Mary Ann, and the compassion and help for human rights and justice displayed by the Quaker group in North Shields, and all these cities individuals who enabled her to settle and marry, and reside out the remainder of her life in security and freedom.”
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