From Slave Ship to Harvard: The Inspiring Journey of Yarrow Mamout and an African American Family's Legacy | African American History Book for Education & Research
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Product Description
From Slave Ship to Harvard is the true story of an African American family in Maryland over six generations. The author has reconstructed a unique narrative of black struggle and achievement from paintings, photographs, books, diaries, court records, legal documents, and oral histories. From Slave Ship to Harvard traces the family from the colonial period and the American Revolution through the Civil War to Harvard and finally today.Yarrow Mamout, the first of the family in America, was an educated Muslim from Guinea. He was brought to Maryland on the slave ship Elijah and gained his freedom forty-four years later. By then, Yarrow had become so well known in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., that he attracted the attention of the eminent American portrait painter Charles Willson Peale, who captured Yarrow’s visage in the painting that appears on the cover of this book. The author here reveals that Yarrow’s immediate relatives―his sister, niece, wife, and son―were notable in their own right. His son married into the neighboring Turner family, and the farm community in western Maryland called Yarrowsburg was named for Yarrow Mamout’s daughter-in-law, Mary “Polly” Turner Yarrow. The Turner line ultimately produced Robert Turner Ford, who graduated from Harvard University in 1927.Just as Peale painted the portrait of Yarrow, James H. Johnston’s new book puts a face on slavery and paints the history of race in Maryland. It is a different picture from what most of us imagine. Relationships between blacks and whites were far more complex, and the races more dependent on each other. Fortunately, as this one family’s experience shows, individuals of both races repeatedly stepped forward to lessen divisions and to move America toward the diverse society of today.
Customer Reviews
This book is a revelation of lives well lived. Two Hundred and Sixty Years ago (June 4, 1752) Yarrow Mamout arrived at the port of Annapolis Maryland and began a life in a new land. 260 years later sitting in my living room I was able to read the remarkable story of Yarrow Maout's life and the lives of his descendants. I use the word remarkable because to have had his portrait painted twice was itself remarkable but to now have his story and that of his family told in such detail and with such love just adds to the remarkableness that began in June 1752.I know that James Johnston was amazed at the portrait that was painted by James Simpson in 1822 and is in the Peabody Room of the Georgetown Library. I have a gut feeling that Yarrow Mamout looked out at Mr. Johnston and was saying, "please tell my story" and what a story that needs to be heard by many of us today in 2012.On reflection I have to say that one thing amazed me was that Yarrow Mamout remained a faithful Muslim all his life. He practiced his faith faithfully and even when Mr. Johnston and Nancy Kassner, then archaeologist of the District of Columbia, looked for his grave they looked in the place where Yarrow Mamout would have gone to pray, the south east corner facing Mecca. His faithfulnes to his faith must have been a remarkable witness to the Beall family as well as all who knew him and should be a witness to all of us.If all of us could have some small degree of the spirit that Yarrow Mamout had we would be far better for it.
