Mary Bell Bythewood

How this work helped shape America

Born enslaved near Beaufort, South Carolina, around 1795, Mary Bell Bythewood spent more than six decades under slavery before gaining freedom during the Civil War. In 1863 she purchased the Beaufort house that had belonged to the family who enslaved her and maintained it as family property. Her acquisition transformed a site of bondage into Black-owned property and a foundation for family stability during Reconstruction.