Anna Williams

Anna "Ann" Williams (born 1791 – d. unknown) was an enslaved woman who successfully sued for freedom for herself and her children before the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Her lawsuit and her infamous jump from the window of the F Street Tavern heightened public awareness of the terror and suffering caused by the slave trade in the United States. Life Williams was born into slavery in around the Bladensburg, Maryland area. Williams was originally enslaved at a plantation in Bladensburg. She was married; they had six children. In November 1815, Williams was sold to Georgia slave traders and forcibly separated from her family. During this period, she jumped from the third-floor window of the F Street Tavern in Washington, D.C. The action became highly publicized, with Abolitionist writers sharing the story as an example of the human indignities of the slave trade. Williams fractured her arms and broke her back due to the fall, but she survived. After her fall, the slave trader left Williams behind but still took her two daughters away to be sold. News of her fall reached Jesse Torrey, a prominent Philadelphia physician and anti-slavery writer who was gathering first-hand narratives by African Americans of slavery and kidnapping. In December 1815, he visited and interviewed Williams who was still recovering at the tavern.