Sara Jones

Sarah Jones was a Black female servant living in Oxford; the 1860 census records her as being 19 years old as of June 9th. Sarah is likely related to the Jones family, a prominent Black family in Oxford based on census records for the 1850s and 1860s, possibly even a daughter of John S. Jones.It is difficult to imagine what life would have looked like for Sarah, but one can imagine that she had mixed feelings about living with the family of Western Female Seminary’s superintendent. Her story could very well mirror that of Lizzie Breckenridge, a Black laborer at IU in the 19th century; further, the family she worked for was employed by Miami University. The line between professional and familial relationships becomes rather blurry when a laborer lives with an employer. That was certainly the case for Lizzie, and perhaps it was the case for Sarah as well: Lizzie was well-loved by many members of the family she worked for, but that didn’t change the fact that she was their employee. Power dynamics and race relations often complicated the family’s feelings of love for Lizzie, and indeed, Lizzie’s feelings of love for the Wylies (the family she worked for); perhaps Sarah had a similar experience.