Sherry Johnson was raped at the age of eight by a church deacon, became a mother at 10, was forced into marriage at 11, and had six children by 17. Her abuser, Alfonsa Tolbert, served as a deacon at the strict apostolic church her family attended regularly.
Recounting the dreadful experience, Sherry said: "All you had to do was walk down the steps from the church and you'd walk into our kitchen. That's where he raped me. I woke up with him on top of me. Many times."
Discovery of Pregnancy and Cover-Up
The sexual assault persisted for another year, until, at the vulnerable age of just nine, Sherry discovered she was expecting. Concerned doctors enquired about the father's identity, however Sherry's mother compelled the young girl to conceal the appalling truth to avoid damaging the family's reputation.
Instead, her mother devised a scheme, dispatching Sherry away with the bishop to deliver the child far from their local area. However, while travelling to Miami, the bishop himself stopped the vehicle and sexually attacked the seven months pregnant Sherry.
The young girl was compelled to deliver thousands of miles from her home in an unfamiliar hospital with nobody beside her. As a result, child welfare authorities began investigating Sherry's family and their church, leading her mother to make a horrifying decision.
Forced Marriage at Age 11
In a bid to halt the investigations, her mother made the devastating choice to marry off her 11-year-old daughter to the very man who had been abusing her. "This terrified me - I had no idea how to be a wife, I was just a child," Sherry said.
Her own mother made the wedding dress, baked the cake, and prepared the veil for the ceremony. When the first government clerk refused to issue a marriage licence to Sherry and her abuser owing to her young age, they travelled to a neighbouring county, where another clerk granted them permission.
Sherry said: "The state of Florida failed me. The school knew. The hospital knew. The doctors knew. The courts knew. Nobody protected me - not one person. No one."
Life in Forced Marriage
Following the marriage, Sherry's rapist moved into the family home alongside her, her mother, her husband, and their child. Sherry said: "We lived in my mother's home for the entirety of our so-called marriage. Our relationship was extremely unhealthy. My husband was largely absent and was never there for me emotionally."
"I was forced to stay home and take care of my child, while learning how to be a wife at the age of 11. I never even finished elementary school. By the time I was 17, I had six children. I was a child raising children."
Her attacker, Alfonsa, repeatedly vanished, particularly whenever she fell pregnant, and provided no financial assistance to Sherry or their six children. As Sherry was still under 18, she was legally prohibited from filing for divorce from her husband.
Escape and Advocacy
By this stage, Sherry had left her mother's home and moved to a housing authority property with her six young children. It was at this point a solicitor became aware of Sherry's desperate situation and agreed to represent her, ultimately securing her a divorce from the deacon.
Sherry explains: "He [the lawyer] defied state bar rules that would have prevented him from offering me assistance and worked successfully in getting my divorce granted by the court."
Despite this, Sherry found herself a teenage mother of six with absolutely no financial support. Yet this extraordinary woman refused to be defeated. Transforming her trauma into something constructive, Sherry felt an overwhelming compulsion to support other young people confronting similarly devastating situations.
In 2013, she authored the book Forgiving The Unforgivable, which chronicles Sherry's distressing ordeal of being imprisoned in a forced child marriage. "Releasing this book allowed my journey to be heard in every corner of the US and shed light on child marriage in our country," she writes.
Campaign for Legal Change
Subsequently, Sherry embarked on her campaign for better legal safeguards for children. In her article on the AHA Foundation website, Sherry explains: "For many years, legislators shut the door in my face. They questioned my story and denied that my experiences happened. This didn't stop me, because I had a mission and passion for those children who had no way out."
"Eventually, someone finally went back and did their research and realized I was telling the truth: Florida allows children to marry adults. After this, legislators were very open and receptive to requests to work on legislation that would change state marriage law. They eventually enacted SB 140, which strengthened the protections around child marriage, but it still allows 17-year-olds to marry in certain circumstances."
Now a campaigner and fierce critic of child marriage across the United States, Sherry regards herself as "the voice for the voiceless" and remains an endlessly inspiring figure to others.
