Mary Ann McCracken was born on July 8, 1770, to Captain and Ann McCracken (nee Joy). Her grandfather, Francis Joy, founded the Belfast Newsletter in 1737 and was one of the Belfast merchants who did a thriving business supplying rough linen clothing and salted provisions to the sugar plantations of the West Indies.
McCracken came from a liberal background and attended David Manston’s co-educational school, a radical institution in the late 18th century. She had sympathies with the United Irishmen and was a lifelong abolitionist. In 1845, she helped establish the Belfast Ladies Anti-Slavery Association, boycotted sugar, and continued to distribute anti-slavery leaflets until she was 89 years old in 1859.
McCracken died in July 1866 at the age of 96 but lived to see the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery and was a cause she devoted herself to for over 20 years.
In 2021, the Belfast City Council agreed to erect a statue of McCracken in the grounds of the Belfast City Hall.
Belfast played a role in the international slave trade and its abolition, to learn more, sign up for the ANTI SLAVERY BELFAST TOUR via the website.
