The headstones marking the graves of Ann and Betty are among the four erected for enslaved individuals in the Dorchester Old North Burying Ground.
Ann’s headstone reads: “Ann, a Negro Child Belonging to Mr. Robert Oliver, & Daughter to his Negro Mimbo; Aged 2 Yrs., Died June 1743.” Betty’s headstone reads: “Betty, a Negro Servant of Col. Robert Oliver Died Feby 19,1748” Robert Oliver was an eighteenth-century merchant, active in Boston and Newport, R.I., with connections to the island of Antigua.
The Akan people of the Gold Coast, now Ghana, in West Africa frequently named their children after the day of the week on which they were born and their birth order. Mimbo, Ann’s mother, is the day name for girls born on Tuesday. Many of the enslaved persons living in New England had roots in Ghana and Senegal. They are celebrated in Dr. Francine Trester’s “A Walk in Her Shoes,” a musical composition premiered by the Boston Landmarks Orchestra in 2021.
