The Devil’s Half Acre was the largest antebellum slave-trading site outside of New Orleans. it was a holding pen, a punishment and “breaking” center for more than 300,000 enslaved men and women. Mary managed to educate her children and find a path to freedom, moving them and herself to the free state of Pennsylvania with Robert’s blessing prior to the Civil War.
She had bargained for her children’s freedom. She reportedly told Robert that he could treat her however he wanted as long as their kids remained free.When Robert died in 1866, Mary and her children were living in Philadelphia, where they’d moved when the Civil War broke out to avoid being captured & sold into slavery.
Robert had left the jail to Mary in a will so she inherited it, though she didn’t want anything to do with it. With the help of a white Baptist missionary, she turned the place into a school. Black students began receiving education at the Richmond Theological School for Freedmen eventually becoming Virginia Union University.
It became the cornerstone for one of America’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU). Virginia Union University (VUU) is still in existence today.
