Sally Maria Diggs (c.1851[1] – October 27, 1928[2]) was an enslaved African-American girl, also known as "Pinky," whose freedom was famously bought by Henry Ward Beecher in 1860, during a sermon at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, NYC.[3] Beecher famously said, "No child should be in slavery, let alone a child like this’ and raised $900 to purchase her freedom.[4] A parishioner named Rose Terry donated a ring toward Diggs' freedom. Upon her emancipation, Diggs was renamed Rose Ward, after Rose Terry and Henry Ward Beecher.[5] The episode was celebrated in a number of paintings and drawings at the time, including Eastman Johnson's "Freedom Ring."[6]

Diggs later attended Howard University and married a lawyer named James Hunt, at which point she became Rose Ward Hunt.[7]

In 1927, Diggs returned to Plymouth Church to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Henry Ward Beecher's first sermon at Plymouth Church.[1]

In 2010 sculptor Meredith Bergmann crafted a bust of Diggs. It was made in the style of the busts that flank the original entrance of the Center for Brooklyn History (then the Brooklyn Historical Society).[8] The bust remains in CBH's collections.

References

  1. 1 2 "Negroes: Again: Pinky". Time. May 23, 1927. Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Sixty-seven years ago the congregation of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, saw Pastor Henry Ward Beecher* mount the pulpit, accompanied by a trembling nine-year-old Negress.
  2. ↑ "Times Union 29 Oct 1928, page 6". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  3. ↑ Library, Brooklyn Public. "Brooklyn Public Library: Brooklyn in the Civil War". www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.
  4. ↑ Strausbaugh, John (October 12, 2007). "On the Trail of Brooklyn's Underground Railroad". The New York Times.
  5. ↑ "Crisis Decade (1850 – 1860) | In Pursuit of Freedom". Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  6. ↑ Library, Brooklyn Public. "Brooklyn Public Library: Brooklyn in the Civil War". www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.
  7. ↑ "Crisis Decade (1850 – 1860) | In Pursuit of Freedom". Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  8. ↑ "Brooklyn Before Now: Artists Run Loose in Brooklyn Historical Society". Brooklyn Before Now. 2010-11-18. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
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