Four Women T-Shirt

Honour Black Bermudian women from centuries past.

Sally Bassett

A symbolic figure in Bermuda’s history, Sarah ‘Sally’ Bassett, an ‘elderly mulatto woman’, and her grand-daughter Beck were enslaved by Thomas Forster.  In 1730, Sally then supplied Beck with poison – ratsbane and manchoneel root – which were discovered in the wall of the kitchen.  She was charged with “suspicion of poisoning several persons”, including Thomas Forster, his wife Sarah Forster, and Nancey, a household bondswoman. Nancey was said to have found the poison and turned Sally in.

She was found guilty on June 5 and sentenced: “To be convey’d to the place of execution where a pile of wood is to be made and provided and you are thereto be fastene’d to a sufficient stake and there be burnt with fire until your body be dead”, which was done on June 6th 1730 in a public display at the Foot of the Lane at the eastern end of Hamilton Harbour.

Fleeper

Fleeper was enslaved by

Hetty

Mary Prince