Skirt worn by an enslaved ancestor of Janett Sharee Galloway

Unidentified · 1850-1875

Janett Sharee Galloway inherited this skirt in 1977 from her grandmother, Mary Lizzie (Hunt) Galloway. The story given to Janett with the skirt was that it originally belonged to the “mother’s mother’s grandmother’s mother’s mother” who was enslaved in or near Macon, Georgia, or neighboring Jones County. Tracing back Mary Lizzie's maternal line, it is likely the skirt's second owner and wearer was her grandmother, a woman born as Mollie Johnson about 1862. Mollie Johnson Hunt’s unidentified mother is the likely original maker and owner, though alterations consistent with the silhouette of the early to mid-1870s suggest Mollie may also have worn the skirt.