Mumu (c.1841-1866):
Locksbrook Cemetery, 5 Cedric Rd, Bath BA1 3PD
Mumu’s story reminds us that whilst slavery was abolished in Britain in 1833, that wasn’t the case elsewhere. In 1846, when she was about five years old, she was rescued from a slave ship by a British Cruiser serving as part of the West Africa Squadron. She was taken to a school for rescued slaves in Charlotte, Sierra Leone. The committee of the Bath Deaf and Dumb Institution heard of her plight and offered to sponsor her. In 1953, she arrived in Bath. Records show she made rapid progress. She was baptised in 1857 and given the name of Annie Jane. The 1861 census shows her working as a “house servant” in Suffolk under her adopted name of Annie and having taken the surname of Jane Elwin.
She returned to Bath, a lived there until her death in 1866 after a short illness. An article about her in the Quarterly Review of Deaf Mute Education for October 1892 also revealed that ,“certain marks on her forehead proved on inquiry that she was a princess in her own country”.
The headstone also includes inscriptions remembering several other long-term residents of the Bath Deaf and Dumb Institution.
Inscription:
In Memory of
MUMU,
a deaf and dumb African girl.
She was rescued in child-hood
from a slave vessel and taken
to the Church Missionary School
at Charlotte, Sierra Leone, from
whence she was sent to England for
education and remained 11 years
in the Bath Institute for the
Blind and Deaf and Dumb.
She was baptized Dec 28 1857
and received the Christian names of
Annie Jane Elwin.
After a short illness, she fell
asleep in Jesus. May 16 1866
aged 25 years.
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