1802-1893
Riverside Embankment Walkway, Tyne Street,
North Shields, England
Mary Ann’s story makes a harrowing read. Born in 1802, Mary Ann was sold at the age of 12 and taken to a farm along with 200 other enslaved people. There she endured 17 years of regular whippings and torture leaving her with the terrifying decision: die a slave or risk escaping. Mary Ann took her chance. Relating her story to the Spence’s – a Quaker family that took her in on her arrival in England, she recounted forcing her way out of a locked room in Virginia and hiding in the woods for weeks while slavers and dogs hunted her. From there she stowed away on a boat eventually arriving in North Shields in the early 1830’s. Settling into the town she married a local man and stayed there until her death at the ripe old age of 91.
I hear about her unveiling soon after it has happened. I’m happy but somehow dismayed there is another unveiling when I am so close to finishing my journey. I’m lucky though that this new statue is only a two-hour drive and I resolve to take it in at the weekend. It’s nearing the end of November and, with a short visit to the south planned the following weekend I’m nearing the end of visiting every named female statue in the UK.
Hot on the heels of the unveiling, when I reach Mary Ann I find I am not the only visitor. Local press has covered the story and several walkers stop by to take in the town’s new edition, which fits with North Shields 800 years celebrations. ‘I think it’s dreadful’ says one passer-by, pointing out the out of proportion hands and feet. Artistic representation of something deeper perhaps?
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