Beecher was one of the most famous (or infamous) Brooklynites of the nineteenth century. The son of prominent Presbyterian minister Lyman Beecher and brother to Uncle Tom’s Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward quickly made a name for himself when he moved to Brooklyn in 1847.

His theatrical and relatable preaching style made him incredibly popular with the public. He was also a vocal advocate for the abolition of slavery – one of the most central and divisive issues that shaped American politics and society.

In 1848, in order to promote awareness of the cruelties of slavery, Beecher began holding mock “slave auctions” at Plymouth Church. These auctions were essentially fundraisers that co-opted the format of the auction block to reveal the visceral horrors of slavery to his congregants. Always featuring young, typically light-skinned, enslaved women and girls, these spectacles allowed Beecher to loudly lambast American slavery while raising money to purchase the freedom of these enslaved women.

This is where Mrs. Hunt comes in. In 1860, she was a nine-year-old enslaved child from just outside Washington D.C. named Sally Maria Diggs, chosen by Beecher as the next beneficiary of one of his auctions. A surviving bill of sale in Brooklyn Historical Society’s collections shows that the Reverend John Falkner Blake of Alexandria, Virginia purchased Diggs from her enslaver, John C. Cook, for nine hundred dollars.

It was Blake who brought Diggs to Beecher’s attention. The funds that Beecher’s congregation raised went to Blake in exchange for his manumitting the young girl. Although Beecher’s auctions were steeped in abolitionist ideals and goals, they were nevertheless a product of his era’s racist status quo, one built upon social and scientific prejudices regarding skin color. Beecher’s selection of light-skinned enslaved women was purposeful.

By featuring young girls with complexions close to those of his white congregants, Beecher garnered sympathy and support for abolition while still buying into racist beliefs centered on the spectrum of blackness. Even Sally Maria Diggs’ nickname “Pinky” by its very nature was racist, elevating Digg’s perceived social value based entirely on her skin shade.

For Diggs herself, the auction was a significant but complex moment in her life. Although Beecher’s congregation raised more than $1,000 dollars to secure her freedom from slavery, this only occurred after her mother and sisters were sold South by Cook, separating them forever. During her “sale,” Beecher also christened Diggs with a new name, Rose Ward, combining a part of his name with that of one of his parishioners, Rose Terry, who contributed a ring to the collection to purchase the young girl’s freedom.

Although this act stripped her of her previous identity, Rose Ward persevered in her new life with her new name. After the auction, she returned to Washington DC with her grandmother, Chloe Diggs, where she worked as a seamstress before attending Howard University. While in college she met her husband James Hunt, taking his name and raising a family. This photo poses her with a statue dedicated to Beecher.

Rose’s return to Plymouth Church for its 80th-anniversary celebration stirred great interest, but some locals were disappointed by her scant recollections of the mock auction. Local newspapers noted that she admitted to having few memories of Beecher, only that he had removed a comb from her head and told her to “never wear anything in your hair that God did not put there.”