Mary Berkeley Minor Blackford (2 December 1802–15 September
1896), antislavery leader, was born in Fredericksburg, the only
daughter and second or third of eight children of John Minor and
his second wife, Lucy Landon Carter Minor. John Minor died when
his daughter was thirteen, and she remained very close to her
mother for the rest of her mother's long life. Mary Minor
received an unusually fine education for a girl of her
generation, though whether at home, from private tutors, or at a
local school for girls is not known. She matured into an
eloquent, determined, and formidable woman who exerted a
powerful influence within her large circle of family and
friends. On 12 October 1825 Minor married William Mathews
Blackford, a Fredericksburg attorney, in Caroline County. She
suffered for virtually her entire adult life from a debilitating
back problem and often spent long intervals in bed. Nonetheless,
during her first fifteen years of marriage she had six sons and
two daughters, all but one of whom lived to ma