Mary Anderson (Harris) Williams (abt. 1817)

Born about 29 Sep 1817 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut, United States

Descendants

Problems/Questions Profile manager: US Black Heritage Project WikiTree [send private message]

Mary (Harris) Williams is a part of US Black history. Join: US Black Heritage Project Discuss: black_heritage

Biography

Mary (Harris) Williams is Notable.

Mary Fayerweather was he daughter of William Monteflora Harris (1783-1859) and Sally Prentice Harris,^[1] both of whom were free farmers. Her father, William Harris,was born in the West Indies.

Mary is noted as a student at the Prudence Crandall School for African-American Woman for the year of 1833-1834. ^[2]

Mary Harris married Pelleman Williams, a teacher from Norwich, in 1845.

Her husband was a known abolitionist who served in the role of president of the Connecticut Convention of Colored Men in 1849.

Together they taught in Connecticut and later New York City. During the Civil War, in 1863, the Williamses moved down south to New Orleans, Louisiana, with their three children. There they educated formerly enslaved African Americans and became two of the first professors at Straight College, now known as Dillard University. Pelleman Williams led the teaching department and Mary Harris Williams taught English.

Their son, Arthur, also became an educator, and married a teacher and principal, Sylvanie Francoz. Their daughter-in-law Sylvanie Williams would undergo the same terrifying experience of having a school destroyed by a racist and violent mob in 1899. Mary Harris Williams died just before Sylvanie Williams rebuilt and reopened her school, but like her mother-in-law, Williams fought hard for the educational rights of African Americans. Several schools in New Orleans have been named after Sylvanie Williams, and she is still revered today as an early activist for African American education.

Maria Davis Harris (who became sister-in-law to Sarah Harris and Mary Harris when she married Charles Harris in a double wedding with Sarah Harris and George Fayerweather) was really the first African American to attend Crandall’s classes. Maria Davis was hired by Crandall as a household assistant and was encouraged to sit in on classes in between tasks. It was Maria Davis who provided Crandall with copies of The Liberator abolitionist newspaper, which she received from fiancée Charles Harris, a distributor of the paper. It is not known if either Sarah Harris Fayerweather or Maria Davis Harris attended classes at the Canterbury Female Boarding School after they married. Charles Harris later returned to Norwich with his wife and together they ran a successful restaurant.

While there is no conclusive evidence that Olive Harris, younger sister to Sarah and Mary Harris, attended the Canterbury Female Boarding School, it does remain a possibility. Olive Harris was 10 years old when Sarah Harris requested admittance, and she may have joined her older sisters in Crandall’s academy. Olive Harris married Frederick Olney in 1844. Olney had stopped in Canterbury to deliver a package to a student from New York, and to visit with his friends, the newly married Charles, and Maria Davis Harris. While repairing a clock for Crandall in a front room, Olney discovered the outside corner of the room had been set on fire. He sounded the alarm and helped extinguish the fire. Later he was arrested for starting the blaze but was acquitted, although the true culprits were never found. Frederick and Olive Harris Olney remained in Canterbury throughout their lives.

The youngest Harris sister, and the final child born to William Monteflora and Sally Prentice Harris, was given the name Maria Crandall Harris. Very little is known of Maria Harris’ life beyond her birth date of Dec. 9, 1836 (two years after the closing of the Canterbury School), but her middle name shows that connections between the Crandall and Harris families endured.

Sources

1. ↑ "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F7WJ-657 : 7 January 2020), Mary Anderson Harris, 29 Sept 1816, Norwich, Connecticut
2. ↑ Students at Prudence Crandall's School for African-American Women, 1833-1834, Compiled by the Prudence Crandall Museum, Canterbury, CT, on file at the Yale Gilder Lehman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. https://glc.yale.edu/students-prudence-crandalls-school-african-american-women-1833-1834

• Find A Grave: Memorial #123855310 Mary Anderson Williams

• "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WKS-6GD : 10 February 2018), Mary A. Harris in entry for Pellemina W. Macneal, 11 Feb 1932; citing Death, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 2,069,526.

• "New York State Census, 1855," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6QR-1JC : 13 March 2018), Mary Williams in household of Pelo Williams, E.D. 3, Ward 5, New York City, New York, New York, United States; citing p. , line #40, family #93, county clerk offices, New York; FHL microfilm 1,018,653.

• https://www.norwichbulletin.com/story/news/local/2021/03/14/historically-speaking-harris-sisters-linked-prudence-crandall/4693098001/