Eliza: Navigating Enslavement, Negotiating Motherhood

Eliza, a thirteen-year-old girl from New York, was placed on the Schoharie in 1818 as part of a Middlesex County Judge Jacob Van Wickle’s slavering and sent to Louisiana. She joined other young girls and at least thirteen mothers of very young children. Eliza became a mother in New Iberia on Avery Island, Louisiana.