Object Number: 2007/038/002

Collection: British Empire & Commonwealth

Object Name: doll

Description: Doll said to have been 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 green background on the skirt and a white top. Also wearing a patterned head tie made from Madras cotton. The body is made in leather, stuffed with horsehair, cut and sewn to the shape of the human body. The head is moulded with a nose and mouth, with human hair (said to be from the woman who made the doll), maybe on a netted wig as /001, but the head tie cannot be removed to check. Eyes of painted cloth are set in holes cut in the head. The head is set into the neck of the body: only /001 is stitched in place. She wears a fine cotton underskirt, with a blue flowered chintz skirt or petticoat, fine cotton blouse and shawl, embroidered with MM, with tiny pockets embroidered MM tied around the waist. She has necklaces of small carnelian and garnet 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. 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.