20th Century Slave: The Horror Story of Dora Jones
Animated Projection Installation (3:39)
This project was presented in collaboration with Dr. Christina Carney at the 2023 Haunting Humanities event in Lawrence, Kansas. The monster featured in this animation depicts Dora Jones' abuser, Elizabeth Ingalls, following the viewer through horrific scenes of Dora's abuse in the Ingalls home. The piece features structures made up of primary documents, such as census records, newspaper articles, and military paperwork, alongside the melody of "Sadie's Servant Room Blues," by Hattie Burleson.
Dora Jones met Elizabeth when she attended Trinity Missionary Day School in Athens, Alabama, where Elizabeth was a teacher. Later, when Dora was a teenager, she was forced to leave her education behind to work for Elizabeth and her first husband, Walter, in Washington, D.C. After Walter raped Dora, Elizabeth forced Dora to have an abortion - a "crime" which Elizabeth later used as blackmail against Dora to keep her trapped in the Ingalls home. Dora was forced to work for Elizabeth and her two husbands, without pay, for nearly forty years.
When Elizabeth and her second husband took a trip to California, they forced Dora to come along, making her sleep in motel hallways or in the back of the car for weeks at a time. When the eldest Ingalls daughter discovered Dora sleeping in the car one night during the trip, she decided that she had witnessed enough of Dora's abuse from her parents and finally decided to report them. Initially, the Ingalls got off scot-free, but they were eventually forced to go to trial after they took Dora over another set of state lines. Dora's trial became a precedent for the time period, redefining what the term 'slavery' means in American law.
To learn more about Dora's story, read Dr. Carney's article:
