Mary Elizabeth Parker (b. circa 1829 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-51366
Maryland State Colonization Society Emigrant to Liberia from Queen
Anne's County, 1835
Biography:
Mary Elizabeth (often recorded simply as Elizabeth) Parker was a freeborn resident of Queen Anne's County. She emigrated to Liberia with her parents, Eben and Charlotte Parker, and sisters, Amie, Kitty, Charlotte Ann, and Caroline.1 On December 24, 1835, the family sailed from Baltimore on the brig Fortune, arriving at Cape Palmas, Liberia on February 4, 1836.2 By 1837, her sister Caroline is absent from the census, suggesting that she passed away.3
In their new home, the arthritic Eben Parker farmed a plot of land with the help of his wife and young daughters. His choice of crops led to several altercations with the indigeneous people, including the Grebo and Barrawe, possibly because they viewed his cultivation of rice as a threat to their monopoly on the market.4 As tensions rose between Eben and the Barrawe, Eben shot a native man attempting to reclaim a sheep that Eben had recently purchased from him. Two days later, on July 26, 1838, a band of Barrawe descended on the Parker farm to exact revenge for their injured tribesmen. The Barrawe killed Eben and three of his daughters while Charlotte Parker fled from the scene, wounded and with a child in her arms.5 The child she rescued was most likely Elizabeth as she is the only Parker daughter recorded on the Liberia 1839 census.6
By 1843, Charlotte Parker had probably passed away as she was not recorded on that year's census, and Elizabeth appeared to be living in the household of Henry Hannon, a schoolteacher, and his family.7 In 1848, Elizabeth was living in the household of carpenter J.B. Dennis and his family.8 The following year, the census recorded her as a spinster (i.e. a single woman) living alone.9 By 1852, it appears that she was married to a seaman named William Watkins.10, 11
2. Hall, Richard L. On Afric’s Shore: A History of Maryland in Liberia, 1834-1857. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), 453.
4. Hall, 182.
5. Ibid, 184-185.
11. Hall, 453.
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