Meet Nancy Gardner-Prince, revered as Black American Duchess (Russia); The More You Know!

Added: 2026-05-22

Nancy Gardner Prince, a free Black woman born in Massachusetts in 1799, became one of the first African American women to publish an international travel memoir after marrying Nero Prince, who served Tsar Alexander I in St. Petersburg; she gained rare access to the Russian imperial court in 1824, witnessing historical events like the Decembrist Revolt and the St. Petersburg flood, and later wrote 'A Narrative of the Life and Travels of Mrs. Nancy Prince,' documenting her experiences as a Black woman in European royalty and challenging contemporary ideas about race, freedom, and womanhood.