Abigail

Abigail (died December 1783), called Abby, was an African American woman enslaved by the American statesman John Jay. She died after attempting to escape in 1783 in Paris, where Jay helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris to secure America's independence.

The Jay household enslaved Abigail since at least 1776; she was one of at least 17 people Jay enslaved. In 1779, she was the only enslaved person Jay and his family took on their trip to Paris. When Jay left for London in 1783, his family and Abigail remained in Paris.

While Sarah's letters initially praised "Abbe"'s "attention & proofs of fidelity" and her "usefulness", she was isolated in Paris, with few friends or opportunities to make any, and separated from her loved ones in America. On the advice of Benjamin Franklin, he suggested that she be left in prison for 15 to 20 days to change her mind: "Little minds cannot bear attentions & to Persons of that Class they should rather be granted than offered." To his biographer Walter Stahr, this reaction indicates that "however much [Jay] disliked slavery in the abstract, he could not understand why one of his slaves would run away."

While imprisoned, Abigail fell ill and asked to be allowed back to the Jays. William Franklin arranged her release by paying 60 livres to the jail, probably to cover her meals. Still sick, she was cared for by Sarah Jay, but died about two weeks after her release from prison. No grave, records, or signs of her life remain.