Grace Wisher, An Indentured Servant
Correcting Identities(TM)
Grace Wisher, an indentured servant believed to be around 12-13 years old, and an Enslaved Black woman-name unknown work on an American Flag in the home of Mary Pickersgill.
Along with her teenage daughter, mother, nieces, painstakingly hand sewed a new garrison flag for Fort McHenry in 1813. Some sources report that Jenny Wisher, Grace's mother helped out also.
Cropped - Image by: Gerry Embleton - Sourced from: NPS- Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail - DC, MD, VA
In a famous 1962 oil painting, artist R. McGill Mackall depicts Mary Pickersgill, the woman most known for designing the Star-Spangled Banner in Baltimore to celebrate United States’ victory against Great Britain during the War of 1812.
In the painting, Mackall included Pickersgill’s daughter, Caroline, and one of her nieces, who also helped design the flag that would go on to inspire Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem. Missing from the painting, however, is Grace Wisher, the 13-year-old Black teenager who was an indentured servant to Pickersgill, and is often overlooked in the storytelling of the nation’s most prominent visual emblem, which has caused much debate throughout history.
Also missing from the painting and the retelling of this historical account is an enslaved Black woman who was owned by Mary Pickersgil and worked to sew this flag.
In July of 1813, Fort McHenry commander Major George Armistead ordered an enormous garrison flag measuring 30 x 42-feet and a smaller storm flag of 17 x 25 feet. The job went to a 37-year-old widow and seamstress named Mary Pickersgill.
What has been discovered is that Grace Wisher was a free girl in Baltimore, Maryland when her mother, Jenny Wisher also a free Black woman, entered her into an indentured contract with Pickersgill in 1810 for six years. Grace is thought to have been around 10 years old at this time. The contract stipulated that Grace would learn housework and plain sewing — essential skills at a time when economic opportunities for African American women were extremely limited. In return, Mary Pickersgill provided Grace with food, shelter, clothing, and a small monetary payment to her mother.
Mary Pickersgill was a slave owner in Baltimore, according to Sally Johnston, former executive director of the Flag House and a Mary Pickersgill biographer, a title for the house and belongings of Pickersgill only lists the sex and age of one enslaved woman and three enslaved young boys is mentioned.
Wisher, however was an indentured servant, not a slave.
Additionally, Pickersgill’s title notes that ownership of her enslaved Black people was passed to her daughter, Caroline, upon her death in 1857.
Sources: Article by Teen Vogue; Article by Colin Campbell – The Baltimore Sun - Aug 27, 2021; NPS, Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail - DC, MD, VA