Sydney Still: "Sydney's Choice"

Sydney Still: "Sydney's Choice". . , Reminiscent of William Styron's novel entitled Sophie's Choice about Nazis in World War II dividing a mother from her children, a small but profound drama played out in 1806 in Caroline County: An enslaved mother named Sydney Still was forced by the owner of Edmondson's Reserve to choose between saving from enslavement either her two young sons or her two little daughters., Levin Still, her freed husband from Greensboro, had moved to New Jersey and wanted his family to join him. Levin and Sydney had four children, all slaves under the age of eight., Sydney had previously managed to escape to New Jersey with all four children, but a slave catcher had brought them back. She was locked in a nearby garret for months, then closely watched. Knowing that she would be immediately pursued and could not successfully take all four children, she chose to take the two girls, hoping that the boys might escape in adulthood. Tearfully, she kissed each boy goodbye as they slept. The next day, when her escape was discovered, the owner of Edmondson's Reserve immediately sold the two boys "down South.", The ultimate legacy of "Sydney's Choice" were two non-fiction books of monumental importance to the history of enslavement and the Underground Railroad in the U.S., Sydney was never recaptured. Settling with her husband in another part of New Jersey, she changed her name to Charity, had nine more children including author William Still, and at the age of 74 was reunited with her long-lost sun Peter Still after his 44 years of enslavement in the South., [Caption:] , Not until the Federal Census of 1850 would Sydney appear in a government record, though not as Sydney, but as Charity Still, the name she assumed after her successful escape from Edmondson's Reserve in Caroline County. At the age of seventy-eight. Charity was part of the household of her son, Samuel, whose home as in Medford Township, Burlington County, New Jersey.