Manigault, Dolly (born about 1833)

Approximate date of birth: 1833

Approximate date of death: Unknown

Occupations: Cook
Washer
Household servant

Spouse: Manigault, Hector (born about 1828)

Disabilities and Illness: Described as an "invalid" in 1861

Dolly [Manigault] a Black woman was born in circa 1833. She was claimed in ownership by enslavers Charles Izard Manigault and Louis Manigault. Dolly spent the majority of her young life at Silk Hope Plantation near the headwaters of the Cooper River in the Berkeley District of South Carolina. In 1852 Dolly and her husband Hector were forced to move 130 miles south to Gowrie Plantation (Ga.) located on Argyle Island (Ga.) in the Savannah River in Georgia. In April of that year, Dolly returned to Silk Hope Plantation. At Gowrie Plantation beginning in 1854, Dolly's stolen labor was "in house" where she cooked and washed for enslaver Louis Manigault and his family for the next eight years. In circa 1862, Dolly sat for a photographic portrait. The sepia-toned photograph shows Dolly seated, though the picture is cropped at her shoulders. Dolly wears a patterned dress with rounded collars and a light colored kerchief on the top of her head. Dolly looks directly at the camera. On 7 April 1863, Dolly sought freedom in Augusta (Ga.), and the white Manigault family never saw her again. Her photographic portrait was pasted to a handwritten runaway advertisement.