Mary-ann asked Susan Holloway Scott:

I see you already answered my question but here is another one-- Was Mary a true Indian from India? Ethnically or race-wise? There were slaves from India as well as Africa? Was she Hindu? If so, how did America/a British colony get slaves from India? I did not of know this part of history. Was she considered "Black?" Or was she "colored"? Were there other countries from which America got slaves?

Susan Holloway Scott Lots of questions, and I'll try to answer them as best I can. Yes, the real Mary was in fact born in India, though nothing is known of her family or life there, or how she came to the West Indies as a girl. Yes, there were enslaved people in 18thc India; there were enslaved people in most of the world at that time. However, India was not a source of enslaved labor for the American colonies, and there were very few Indians, free or enslaved, in America at the time. It's not known how dark or fair the real Mary was, but it's likely that to white British Americans, she would have appeared black, and later her children with Aaron Burr were part of the free African-American community in Philadelphia. The majority of America's 18thc enslaved workers were forcibly displaced from the modern day African countries of Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon.

flag