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SUMMARY
Sally Cottrell was an enslaved maid and seamstress. Born sometime around 1800, she served as a maid to Ellen Wayles Randolph at Monticello from 1809 until 1824, after which Randolph married and moved to Boston. Cottrell was then hired out to a University of Virginia professor, who later purchased her with the intention of freeing her. It is unclear whether Cottrell was ever officially freed, but by early 1828 she was working on her own as a seamstress. She was baptized in Charlottesville in 1841, married in 1846, and died in 1875. She had no children. Cottrell was born enslaved sometime around 1800. Her tombstone reads that in 1875 she was “aged about 75 years,” but other documentary evidence points to birth years that vary widely, from 1790 to 1825. Nothing is known of her parents, although she is later described as being “mulatto.” She may have had only a first name at birth. In 1809, Cottrell began working at Monticello as a maid to Ellen Wayles Randolph, the da