Ann Carroll Smith (née Fitzhugh; 1805–1875)[1] was an American abolitionist, mother of Elizabeth Smith Miller, and the spouse of Gerrit Smith. Her older brother was Henry Fitzhugh.
Ann and Gerrit Smith's Peterboro, New York, home was a station on the Underground Railroad. Known as "Nancy,"[2] Ann Fitzhugh Smith frequently traveled via an enclosed carriage to permit her carriage to be used, in her absence, to convey veiled fugitives on their way to Canada.[3]
Ann, the ninth of twelve children,[4]: 45 was reared in the slave state of Maryland by the William Frisby Fitzhugh family, owners of over 60 slaves. When she was about twelve in 1817, the family sold their Maryland property, most of their slaves, and moved to near Rochester.[4]: 23
In 1822, Fitzhugh married Gerrit Smith. She was devout and was influential in her husband's religious conversion and beliefs about social reform and slavery.[4]: 24 They had met because a brother of Gerrit's first wife, Wealtha Backus, had married Ann's sister Rebecca in 1819.[4]: 24
- ^ Syracuse University, Smith Family Tree Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Works of James McClune Smith (John Stauffer, ed.)(2006) at 297 Archived 2019-12-15 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Elizabeth Smith Miller Archived 2014-02-03 at the Wayback Machine (Apr. 15, 2011).
- ^ a b c d Dann, Norman Kingsford (2021). Passionate Energies. The Gerrit and Ann Smith Family of Peterboro, New York Through a Century of Reform. Hamilton, New York: Log Cabin Books. ISBN 9781733089111.