It is doubtful that when Mary Prince was growing up in abject poverty, in the ironically named town of Richland, Georgia, she ever imagined herself living in the White House. Married and pregnant by 14, the options for Prince were already slim but became virtually non-existent after a fateful night in 1970 which completely changed the course of an already exhausting life. That night, she and her cousin, Aniemaude, went to a bar, where the cousin found herself in a drunken argument with another woman. Aniemaude pulled out a gun, and she and the other woman fought to control the weapon, at which point Prince attempted to wrestle the gun from her, resulting in her fatally wounding the other woman’s boyfriend.
“I went outside and heard a shot. Aniemaude and this woman were fighting over Aniemaude’s gun…I didn’t know anything about guns, but I tried to take it away, and it went off. We didn’t know it had hit anyone...”
After stating that she was led to believe she was pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and would receive a lighter sentence by a public defender she met with for less than a half hour, she was actually pleading guilty to first degree murder.
She received a life sentence.
The governor and his wife Rosalynn Carter were convinced of her innocence, even to the point of acknowledging that if the man who was shot had been white, Prince would have received the death penalty and so began a long work relationship but also an advocacy for Prince. Prince became the Carters’ nanny while Jimmy Carter served as the governor of Georgia. Her tenure initially ended in 1975 when his term as governor ended. She went back to prison but was allowed to go to Carters’ inauguration, which is where Rosalynn asked if she would like to live in the White House. He was unable to pardon her because she had not committed a federal crime but did grant her presidential reprieve and subsequently acted as her parole officer.
While Prince cared for Amy Carter, her sons lived in an apartment where they were carried for by her mother. For four years, Amy saw more of their mother than they did. On one side, what they did for Prince was effectively save her life and allow her time with her boys, but she also spent more time with Amy, than her own children. After re-examination of the case, Georgia prosecutors were not convinced of Mary’s guilt and she received a full pardon.
However, Prince’s is a story of the unluckiest of luck.
It is not mentioned how much Prince was paid, but she was in the “trusty,” program, which is nothing but a less cruel version of convict leasing. A program that did not and does not grant prisoners an even remotely fair wage. Due to her mother and sons living in an apartment nearby, it is doubtful that she was grossly underpaid but she was still one of many prisoners who have been wrongfully convicted and made to work off a debt that they never rightfully incurred. Jimmy Carter, for all his wrongs (not to say he had more than most, but all humans have wrongs), did his best to right the injustice that had befallen Prince—but how many stories are just like Prince’s without the happy ending.
The 13th amendment effectively abolished slavery and forced labor, unless under circumstances of imprisonment. Prisoners all over the United States make everything from clothes to food, to furniture, producing billions of dollars’ worth of products we consume daily. Louisiana’s Angola prison is on the same land that was once owned by one of Louisiana’s biggest plantation owners. Angola is not just a prison, but it is also a labor camp and produces much of the food that lands on our shelves, even while prisoners complain of inedible food. Prisoners state that after being forced to work in triple-digit heat, without proper provisions, many would pass out or be beaten for discontinuing work. While some states pay as high as $2 an hour for non-industry jobs, some don’t pay at all.
Even still, many prisoners are required to use their money for their own room and board, restitution and fines and family support.
Hillary Clinton wrote in her 1996 book, from the perspective of a privileged white woman, about the kinship she had with the prisoners who worked in her home for free when she and Bill Clinton lived in the governor’s mansion in Arkansas, noting that despite what she perceived as a friendship, she was quick to send them back to prison if they violated any of the rules. She would lament that they were not necessarily bad people but rather “emotional illiterates.” Clinton’s Crime Bill ballooned the nation’s prison system and helped to demolish Black communities and jet-fueled the underpaid, overworked and unprotected prison population. On his last day in office, Clinton pardoned 120 people, out of the 450 he pardoned, in total. Out of those 120 only one had lived with Clinton—his brother Roger.
There was no freedom granted for the free laborers, who were effectively slaves.
In hindsight, Jimmy Carter’s legacy is much more powerful than he could have imagined it would be after he failed to be re-elected and lost to Ronald Reagan. He was one of the best presidents and definitely one of the most beloved of the 20th century and helped with the advancements for Black people in this country. His decision to make Prince his nanny was not without intense scrutiny, including a racist sketch SNL sketch involving Sissy Spacek and Garrett Morgan, who dressed in drag to play Prince.
President Carter effectively freed Prince, not being able to grant her clemency because even though prisoners can work in the governor’s mansion, Georgia does not allow a governor the right to grant clemency. However, he defied convention and even advisors by making Prince his nanny. He dedicated his 2004 book, Sharing Good Times, to her and wrote about her in his 2006 book, Our Endangered Values, about her being the victim of a racist just system.
Assata Shakur vocally opposed the arrangement, which at its core it is worthy of critique: she was an enslaved woman working in the White House, but Carter still undid an injustice he himself had not done.
Recalling Rosalynn Carter's friendship with Mary Prince, woman wrongfully convicted of murder who became White House nanny https://t.co/vD5UPaa45g
— 13WMAZ News (@13wmaznews) November 20, 2023
Prince still worked for the family after Carter’s presidency, which does beg the question, was that the best option for her or the best option available, but she and Rosalynn remained close until her death.
While many presidents do what they can to win the Black vote, at the very least Jimmy Carter made good on his promises.
Rest easy Jimmy, even in your final days, you kept it 100, literally.
