Malvina 'Viney' Russell

Seated on the back stoop of the Smith-Miller mansion in Petersboro, New York. She was a child when Abolitionist, Gerrit Smith purchased her family's freedom in 1841 from a Mississippi slave-holder. Malvina lived in Petersboro the rest of her life and did domestic work for the Smiths and other families.

"Passages To Freedom: The Underground Railroad In History and Memory" edited by David W. Blight, Smithsonian Books