Citizens Association of Georgetown Hosts Monthly Meeting in Historic Black Methodist Church

The Citizen Association of Georgetown chose the appropriate Mt. Zion Methodist Church to host its Black History month meeting yesterday, which featured a speech by author and Underground Railroad enthusiast Mary Kay Ricks.
According to longtime member and chair of the church Carter Bowen, Mt. Zion has close ties with slavery and African-American history, a major theme in Ricks’ book, Escape on the Pearl: the Heroic Bid for Freedom on the Underground Railroad.
Bowen began the meeting with a brief introduction of the church and its correlation with the Georgetown community, citing recent newspaper articles.
"Do you all still know what a newspaper is?" asked Bowen, which gathered laughs from the audience. "I'm a newspaper man."
Mt. Zion Methodist Church was founded in Georgetown in 1816 by a group of freed, Methodist Negroes. Though it was not a direct part of the Underground Railroad, membership in Mt. Zion provided the slave population a “route to freedom in the North,” according to Bowen.
In addition to the history of the church, Bowen gave the audience a packet that described that by being a member of the church, black slaves had a “pass” to be members of society. According to Ricks, the African- American community centered in the churches, and the “natural leaders” were the ministers. They were the one place where people didn’t need a pass.
“This [church] puts you in a place,” said Ricks. “[It] gives you a feel for the history, and that history is all enveloped in the book I wrote about Washington, Georgetown, our country, and our history. This church’s history is so wrapped up in this story.”
Ricks’ book, Escape on the Pearl: the Heroic Bid for Freedom on the Underground Railroad, tells the story of a ship, the Pearl, which carried 77 slaves down the Potomac River in 1848 and its desperate attempt to flee slavery in Washington, DC. The Pearl was a schooner that was to set sail from a secluded spot in Washington and port in Philadelphia, where the slaves were to make their ways from the “slave territory of Maryland and go to freedom.”
Ricks read an excerpt from Pearl, one about two young slave girls who were on the Pearl and had family ties to Mt. Zion. Methodists Mary and Emily Edmondson worked for a wealthy Maryland family that owned 40 acres in what is now Silver Spring. The two girls and their brothers escaped to go to the Pearl while their master was sleeping.
According to Ricks, most of the people that went on the Pearl went because their security was in jeopardy due to the slave trade. The growing cotton industry needed labor in the southern states, so more and more slave owners in the north were selling their slaves to the south.
“With that, a domestic slave trade was developed,” said Ricks.
Due to a large storm on the east coast, the Pearl had to make anchor, which resulted in its capture the following morning. When recaptured by their masters, the slaves were marched along Pennsylvania Avenue and created a massive riot. According to Ricks, Washington citizens were so outraged by the publics’ treatment of the slaves, they formed a committee.
“Only that could happen in Washington,” said Ricks.
Despite the efforts of the Washingtonians, 80 percent of the slave fugitives on the Pearl were sold in the slave trade, including both Edmondson sisters. One slave trader bought 50 slaves and sent them to New Orleans, “where the money was,” according to Ricks.
Henry Ward Beecher, brother of author Harriet Beecher Stowe, was a lead supporter for the Edmondson girls’ freedom and campaigned to set them free.
“He said ‘these are Methodist girls. These are pure girls. You have the ability to save these girls’ souls,’” said Ricks. After that, “women were taking off their jewelry, and men were emptying their pockets.” After being set free, the Edmondson sisters ended up “standing shoulder to shoulder with Frederick Douglas at anti-war rallies in Washington.”
Ricks said she used old newspapers and letters written by Emily and Harriet Beecher Stowe as sources for telling the Pearls story.
“Like today, they aren’t always accurate, but they give you a feel for the time period,” said Ricks.
Even though the story of the Pearl is “history in a grain of sand,” it has been optioned to be made into a movie for the small screen. Ricks and an actor/ producer who worked with Star Trek are working on a two hour pilot.
“We just have to convince the moneybags that it’s worth it,” said Ricks. “We would love to see this as a series so we can really go into detail of this story.”
Before penning Pearl, Ricks was an attorney at the Department of Labor. She has written about Washington history in many publications, including the Washington Post. Ricks also founded TourDC, a company that provides walking tours of Washington.