Object Number: 2007/038/001

Collection: British Empire & Commonwealth

Object Name: doll

Description: Doll said to be made in 1780s or 1790s by a former enslaved woman for her ex-mistress. Wearing period dress with a floral pattern in pink with a dark blue background on the skirt and a white top. Also wearing a headscarf. This may be a replacement for a head tie, as the two other dolls wear: the cloth, style and stitching is very coarse compared with the carefully made doll and clothes. The body is made in leather, stuffed with horsehair, cut and sewn to the shape of the human body. The original stitching is mostly small and neat, but seams in the legs especially have been repaired with much bigger stitching. The head is moulded with a nose and mouth. A 'wig' on a network is attached to the head, said to be made with human hair from the woman who made the doll. Eyes of painted cloth are set in holes cut in the head. She wears a fine cotton underskirt, with a dark blue flowered chintz skirt or petticoat, fine cotton blouse and shawl, with tiny pockets tied around the waist. She has a gold earring worn as a necklace (does this reference a slave collar?), and a string of tiny blue beads. Said to have been made for Maria Michell, wife of an attorney in Grenada and Barbados (actually Maria Ahmuty, nee Anderson). She freed at least one enslaved woman, and it is said to be the custom for a freed slave to make a doll for her former mistress. the three dolls appear to be made by the same person. Maria stayed in contact with her freed slave: a letter suggests frequent contact, including the sending of goods ordered and paid for by the freed woman, Rebecca Snagg, for sale in Grenada. Rebecca Snagg owned slaves herself, but sold them when she was in financial difficulties.