Ann Williams

Ann Williams has been immersed in regional history for over thirty years. She has a particular interest in antebellum plantation life, and the families, black and white, who worked those plantations. She has researched farming practices of the period, especially cotton farming, and the extensive collections of family papers of several large Mecklenburg planters. She has used a variety of sources to study slave life especially books and papers written by slaves or former slaves. Using this information she has written detailed accounts for local historic sites. Along with her husband she volunteers at historic sites doing research, giving tours, and doing first person interpretations in the personas of those who lived before.

She is the author of Your Affectionate Daughter, Isabella, a documented story drawn from family papers about the experiences and adventures of the Torrance family, owners of a fine Mecklenburg plantation. And she is co-editor of A Life in Antebellum Charlotte, The Private Journal of Sarah F. Davidson, 1837, which portrays Charlotte in a pivotal year of its history.

Ann and her husband Jim have lived in Charlotte, North Carolina since 1969. They are the parents of three grown children, and four fabulous grandchildren.