Mary Prince is a woman born in 1946 in Richland, Georgia, United States. Like many dark-skinned people who grew up in the American South, especially in rural areas, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1960s, she grew up knowing nothing but poverty.
She never met her father. His mother grew vegetables, but when the crops failed, the family had only bread, butter and syrup to support themselves. Luckily they had an old tin tub and could clean themselves.
When Mary was twelve, her older sister died of a brain tumor. Mary later dropped out of school to care for her younger sister. At the age of fourteen, she had her first child, and another was added at the age of eighteen. Both children were sons, but Mary was a single mother. She worked as a maid in a private home and as a cashier in a restaurant.
A fateful evening
One spring evening in 1970, Mary and her aunt went to a bar in Lumpkin, Georgia. The aunt got into a fight with a woman who pulled out a gun. Mary, who didn’t know much about firearms, tried to retrieve the gun, but all she could do was shoot it, and the boyfriend of the woman Aunt Mary ran into beat was killed.
The woman accused Mary of purposely shooting her boyfriend. Mary was arrested and a white attorney was appointed. Mary later said the lawyer didn’t care and she thought she would be charged with manslaughter. On the lawyer’s advice, she pleaded guilty to avoid a much heavier sentence. It wasn’t until she got to the courtroom that she found out the charge was premeditated murder.
Mary was sentenced to life in prison, but it was thought she would have been sentenced to death if the man who died in the fatal shooting had been white.
Help from an unexpected source
During these years, it was said in many states in the United States that some inmates were used for various jobs and activities outside the prisons according to certain rules and structures. Mary was one such prisoner and in 1971, following an interview, she was hired to work in the residence of the Governor of Georgia, who at the time was James Earl Carter, better known as Jimmy Carter.
The governess, Rossalyn Carter, interviewed Mary one day, and after hearing her story she was convinced that Mary had not committed the crime for which she had been convicted. Mary was hired as a nanny for the Carters’ youngest child, who was their only daughter, Amy. Amy was three years old at the time and she and Mary immediately became very close.
After Jimmy Carter resigned as governor in 1975, Mary was sent back to prison. Carter was elected President of the United States in November 1976, and when the family moved to the White House in Washington, D.C., the President’s official residence, his desire to see Mary return to care for Amy was strong.
Mary, however, was a prisoner and not allowed to leave Georgia. First Lady Rossalyn sent a letter to the Pardon Commission asking that Mary be allowed to travel to Washington. The president also got the go-ahead that he was appointed as Mary’s probation officer.
There was no shortage of equipment and took Mary, who still had a murder conviction behind her, to work as a nanny in the White House itself. She held the position for the entire four years that Jimmy Carter was president.
Mary’s case was eventually reviewed by Georgian authorities and she was eventually pardoned and cleared of all charges. She maintained a good relationship with the Carter family and keeps them to this day.
She told her story in a 1977 interview with People magazine, while working in the White House, and said, among other things, of her relationship with Amy:
“We even had fun here and in Georgia.” She likes to tickle me and jump on me. There is a big garden here for us to play with his dog. Amy likes to climb trees, like in Georgia, and climbs higher than me. She’s become a big girl.”
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