Sally Maria Diggs Explained

Sally Maria Diggs (1851^[1]  - October 27, 1928^[2]) was an enslaved African-American girl, also known as "Pinky," whose freedom was famously bought by Henry Ward Beecher in 1860, during a sermon at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, NYC.^[3] Beecher famously said, "No child should be in slavery, let alone a child like this’ and raised $900 to purchase her freedom.^[4] A parishioner named Rose Terry donated a ring toward Diggs' freedom. Upon her emancipation, Diggs was renamed Rose Ward, after Rose Terry and Henry Ward Beecher.^[5] The episode was celebrated in a number of paintings and drawings at the time, including Eastman Johnson's "Freedom Ring."^[6]

Diggs later attended Howard University and married a lawyer named James Hunt, at which point she became Rose Ward Hunt.^[7]

In 1927, Diggs returned to Plymouth Church to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Henry Ward Beecher's first sermon at Plymouth Church.

In 2010 sculptor Meredith Bergmann crafted a bust of Diggs. It was made in the style of the busts that flank the original entrance of the Center for Brooklyn History (then the Brooklyn Historical Society).^[8] The bust remains in CBH's collections.

Notes and References

1. Negroes: Again: Pinky . . May 23, 1927 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090212192935/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,730555,00.html . dead . February 12, 2009 . Sixty-seven years ago the congregation of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, saw Pastor Henry Ward Beecher* mount the pulpit, accompanied by a trembling nine-year-old Negress..
2. Web site: Times Union 29 Oct 1928, page 6 . 2023-12-05 . Newspapers.com . en.
3. Web site: Brooklyn Public Library: Brooklyn in the Civil War. Brooklyn Public. Library. www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.
4. News: On the Trail of Brooklyn's Underground Railroad . The New York Times . John . Strausbaugh . October 12, 2007.
5. Web site: Crisis Decade (1850 – 1860) In Pursuit of Freedom . 2023-12-05 . en-US.
6. Web site: Brooklyn Public Library: Brooklyn in the Civil War. Brooklyn Public. Library. www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.
7. Web site: Crisis Decade (1850 – 1860) In Pursuit of Freedom . 2023-12-05 . en-US.
8. Web site: Brooklyn Before Now: Artists Run Loose in Brooklyn Historical Society. 2010-11-18. Brooklyn Before Now. 2018-02-22. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110708025921/http://brooklynbeforenow.blogspot.com/2010/11/artists-run-loose-in-brooklyn.html. 2011-07-08.