Susie King Taylor, Iconic Heroine, A Nation's Midwife

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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Yet another faux photograph of Susie King Taylor ( except when she is not )- edit November 5, 2015, correct ID by our author Rosefiend, please see post below, and will not remove this lovely young not-Susie King-Taylor photo because then Rosefiend's post will make no sense.



Susie King Taylor's
story is all the heck all over the internet, we hope as a result of her tireless work 150 years ago. Have to say once again tough finding a terrific bio- no idea why. Her eventual book, Reminiscences of Life with the 33d US Colored Troops, is sufficiently filled with Susie speaking to us in her voice, using her word and thought processes you would think someone would do more than repeat facts when it comes to her ' bios'. One must exist- her story, born enslaved, SO, so bright she outstripped teachers, all of them, in secret schools for enslaved, given an entire school herself to create and teach at fourteen ( !!!!!!! ), somehow teaching herself to be a nurse, continuing both post war- is so absurdly incredible in the 1860's you just know someone has written a book. If anyone does follow the links please know none contain sufficient material to speak for Susie. What I have brought here, lukewarm- Susie King Taylor deserves much, much more and hugely better.

For instance- this 14 year old who was entrusted by the Union Army with teaching on an entire base, a whole island in fact, became a nurse then opened schools, taught more, opened more schools has on her resume in nearly every, single article..........ahem...... ' laundress'. Of course she was, at times, to buy food. Susie followed her husband, a soldier. Still- ' laundress' in the mix, this incredible, educated, flamingly dedicated heroine. I worked at Dairy Queen as a teen ager. If anyone insisted this be included on an equal basis in a professional evaluation I'd suspect an attempt to poke holes in my dignity if not credibility.
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This is incredible. Susie was able to get a photograph of the school she attended as a child, wonderful!

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Susie King Taylor, Teacher, Nurse, Philanthropist

So here’s a problem with the internet and History, it’s ok when it’s History. Ever forget there’s bread dough rising? Pushes over the top of your mixing bowl, all air and yeast, you have to dump the whole mess out, beat it up, get back to basics before shaping loaves worth anything. Same thing with finding facts worth anything and not becoming distracted by puffy yeast, in so, so much on-line History. I was trying to find information on one of my all-time favorite Young- Girls-Catching-Fire stories, that of heroine Susie King Taylor and came across this….

“ Most of what is known about Susie (Baker) King Taylor derives from her memoir, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops Late 1st S.C. Volunteers. She was born into slavery on August 8, 1848, on Grest Farm, Isle of Wight, off the coast of Georgia. At age seven, she moved to Savannah to live with her maternal grandmother, who encouraged her to attend a clandestine school. When Taylor was 14, she escaped with her uncle's family to the Union-controlled St. Catherine Island. Shortly thereafter, Taylor relocated to St. Simons Island, where she opened a school for African American children and adults. Taylor married Sergeant Edward King of the South Carolina Volunteers (later the 33rd U.S. Colored Infantry) and traveled with him as the regiment's laundress, although she also served as cook, teacher, and nurse. Scholar Victoria Sherrow lists her as a Civil War spy, but this information appears unconfirmed (p. 269). After the war, Taylor settled in Savannah, Georgia, with her husband, who was killed in an accident shortly before the birth of their son. Taylor spent much of the remainder of her life in the North, serving as a teacher, domestic servant, and cook. In 1879, Taylor married Russell L. Taylor, about whom little is known. He died in 1901, the year before Taylor published her memoir. Despite her work during the Civil War and her subsequent dedication to political and social reform, Taylor died in relative obscurity in 1912. “

http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/taylorsu/summary.html

This is one of the freedman's schools, Charlotte Forten's, with Charlotte herself tending to children.
school freemans penn forten.JPG


Whoa, what? “ Despite what? Died HOW?? Susie King Taylor left this planet poorer for her passing but died as we all must, I’m guessing at great peace with herself and the part she played as midwife that latter part of our nation’s labor the first pangs of which were felt in 1776. One midwife; we had many assisting the birth of a New Nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that All Men Were Created Equal. Obscurity? You would have to define that, ‘ obscure ‘.

We’re speaking of her 150 years later- how obscure could it have been? We’re thanking Susie, midwife, hate to have to point this out, she was a black midwife. Ordinarily I would not but it is extremely important to the plot, her storyline, our nations emergence into the loving arms of Mother Liberty.

school hilton head.jpg

school hilton headb crop.jpg

Another school, this on Hilton Head, where newly joyful people could finally, finally gain an education denied them for centuries.


Susie was born in 1848 in to parents Hagar Ann and Raymond Baker in Liberty County, GA on a farm that belonged to the Grest family. When she was seven, she remembers being sent to Savannah, along to live with her grandmother. Once settled there, she tells of being secretly schooled by a freed Negro by the name of Mrs Woodhouse. “We went every day about nine o’clock, with our books wrapped in paper to prevent the police or white persons from seeing them. We went in, one at a time, through the gate, into the yard to the L kitchen, which was the schoolroom. [Mrs. Woodhouse] had 25 or 30 children whom she taught, assisted by her daughter Mary Jane.”

Susan soon developed a friendship with a white girl named Katie O’Connor. Katie offered to give Susan education lessons on two conditions: that Susan secure her grandmother’s permission and that she never let Katie’s father find out. Susan agreed. The lessons lasted for about four months until the time Katie was abruptly moved into the convent permanently.

I often wrote passes for my grandmother. [For] all colored persons, free or slaves, were compelled to have a pass; free colored people having a guardian in place of a master…Each person had to have this pass for at nine o’clock each night a bell was rung, and any colored persons found on the street after this hour were arrested by the watchman, and put in the guard-house until next morning when their owners would pay their fines and release them.” She also notes at this time in her life “I had been reading so much about the ‘Yankees’ I was very anxious to see them
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https://ehistory.osu.edu/articles/susan-baker-king-taylor-reminiscences-life-33d-us-colored-troops

In April 1862 Baker and many other African Americans fled to St. Simons Island, occupied at the time by Union forces. Within days her educational advantages came to the attention of army officers, who offered to obtain books for her if she would organize a school. She thereby became the first black teacher for freed African American students to work in a freely operating freedmen's school in Georgia. She taught forty children in day school and "a number of adults who came to me nights, all of them so eager to learn to read, to read above anything else." She taught there until October 1862, when the island was evacuated.
school freemans georgia.JPG

Her legacy, and the legacy of all our teachers, one of he schools post war, this one in Georgia.

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/susie-king-taylor-1848-1912

While at the school on St. Simons Island, Baker married Edward King, a black noncommissioned officer in the First South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent (later reflagged as 33rd United States Colored Troops 8 February 1864 which was disbanded at Fort Wagner in 1866).

For three years she moved with her husband's and brothers' regiment, serving as nurse and teaching many of the black soldiers to read and write during their off-duty hours.

In 1866 she and Edward returned to Savannah, where she established a school for the freed children. Edward King was killed , in a freakish accident, in September 1866, a few months before the birth of their first child. Also around this time Taylor closed her school when a free school opened nearby . In 1867 she returned to her native Liberty County to establish another school. In 1868 she again relocated to Savannah, where she continued teaching freedmen ..
wikipedia]Susie_Taylor

school freemans2.JPG

I think this is one of the island schools, please excuse, cannot remember which. These school functioned many years post war. There was a lot to accomplish, so many lovely young minds to fill with knowledge.

Ending here. Bios being what they are one's old age and death are far too open subjectively. Given Susie King Taylor's entire life, her unstoppable energy, commitment, brilliance of mind and character you just know she her private moments before deserved, blessed long rest were filled with content. She'd done what she was put here to do. Thank you, Susie King Taylor.

school s c a orig.jpg

school s c a.jpg

school s c b.jpg

Because this photo of a Freedman's School in South Carolina is so delightful, so hopeful a moment captured in time, it deserves much viewing in honor of students and teacher equally.
 
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Excellent story about Susie King Taylor. I don't think I'd ever heard of her before. The Find A Grave site mentions her plot is unmarked which saddens me greatly after the extraordinary life she led and all the people she helped for so many years in all those various roles of nurse, teacher and midwife among other duties.
 
Susie King Taylor's story is all the heck all over the internet, we hope as a result of her tireless work 150 years ago. Have to say once again tough finding a terrific bio- no idea why. Her eventual book, Reminiscences of Life with the 33d US Colored Troops, is sufficiently filled with Susie speaking to us in her voice, using her word and thought processes you would think someone would do more than repeat facts when it comes to her ' bios'. One must exist- her story, born enslaved, SO, so bright she outstripped teachers, all of them, in secret schools for enslaved, given an entire school herself to create and teach at fourteen ( !!!!!!! ), somehow teaching herself to be a nurse, continuing both post war- is so absurdly incredible in the 1860's you just know someone has written a book. If anyone does follow the links please know none contain sufficient material to speak for Susie. What I have brought here, lukewarm- Susie King Taylor deserves much, much more and hugely better.
View attachment 81043
Susie King Taylor

For instance- this 14 year old who was entrusted by the Union Army with teaching on an entire base, a whole island in fact, who became a nurse then opened schools, taught more, opened more schools has on her resume in nearly every, single article ' laundress'. Of course she was- she followed her husband, a soldier. Still- ' laundress' in the mix, this incredible, educated, flamingly dedicated heroine. I worked at Dairy Queen as a teen ager. If anyone insisted this be included on an equal basis in a professional evaluation I'd suspect an attempt to poke holes in my dignity if not credibility.
View attachment 81042
This is incredible. Susie was able to get a photograph of the school she attended as a child, wonderful!

View attachment 81041
Susie King Taylor, Teacher, Nurse, Philanthropist

So here’s a problem with the internet and History, it’s ok when it’s History. Ever forget there’s bread dough rising? Pushes over the top of your mixing bowl, all air and yeast, you have to dump the whole mess out, beat it up, get back to basics before shaping loaves worth anything. Same thing with finding facts worth anything and not becoming distracted by puffy yeast, in so, so much on-line History. I was trying to find information on one of my all-time favorite Young- Girls-Catching-Fire stories, that of heroine Susie King Taylor and came across this….

“ Most of what is known about Susie (Baker) King Taylor derives from her memoir, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops Late 1st S.C. Volunteers. She was born into slavery on August 8, 1848, on Grest Farm, Isle of Wight, off the coast of Georgia. At age seven, she moved to Savannah to live with her maternal grandmother, who encouraged her to attend a clandestine school. When Taylor was 14, she escaped with her uncle's family to the Union-controlled St. Catherine Island. Shortly thereafter, Taylor relocated to St. Simons Island, where she opened a school for African American children and adults. Taylor married Sergeant Edward King of the South Carolina Volunteers (later the 33rd U.S. Colored Infantry) and traveled with him as the regiment's laundress, although she also served as cook, teacher, and nurse. Scholar Victoria Sherrow lists her as a Civil War spy, but this information appears unconfirmed (p. 269). After the war, Taylor settled in Savannah, Georgia, with her husband, who was killed in an accident shortly before the birth of their son. Taylor spent much of the remainder of her life in the North, serving as a teacher, domestic servant, and cook. In 1879, Taylor married Russell L. Taylor, about whom little is known. He died in 1901, the year before Taylor published her memoir. Despite her work during the Civil War and her subsequent dedication to political and social reform, Taylor died in relative obscurity in 1912. “

http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/taylorsu/summary.html

This is one of the freedman's schools, Charlotte Forten's, with Charlotte herself tending to children.
View attachment 81045

Whoa, what? “ Despite what? Died HOW?? Susie King Taylor left this planet poorer for her passing but died as we all must, I’m guessing at great peace with herself and the part she played as midwife that latter part of our nation’s labor the first pangs of which were felt in 1776. One midwife; we had many assisting the birth of a New Nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that All Men Were Created Equal. Obscurity? You would have to define that, ‘ obscure ‘. We’re speaking of her 150 years later how obscure could it have been? We’re thanking Susie, midwife, hate to have to point this out, she was a black one. Ordinarily I would not but it is extremely important to the plot, her storyline, our nations emergence into the loving arms of Mother Liberty.

View attachment 81047
View attachment 81048
Another school, this on Hilton Head, where newly joyful people could finally, finally gain an education denied them for centuries.


Susie was born in 1848 in to parents Hagar Ann and Raymond Baker in Liberty County, GA on a farm that belonged to the Grest family. When she was seven, she remembers being sent to Savannah, along to live with her grandmother. Once settled there, she tells of being secretly schooled by a freed Negro by the name of Mrs Woodhouse. “We went every day about nine o’clock, with our books wrapped in paper to prevent the police or white persons from seeing them. We went in, one at a time, through the gate, into the yard to the L kitchen, which was the schoolroom. [Mrs. Woodhouse] had 25 or 30 children whom she taught, assisted by her daughter Mary Jane.”

Susan soon developed a friendship with a white girl named Katie O’Connor. Katie offered to give Susan education lessons on two conditions: that Susan secure her grandmother’s permission and that she never let Katie’s father find out. Susan agreed. The lessons lasted for about four months until the time Katie was abruptly moved into the convent permanently.

I often wrote passes for my grandmother. [For] all colored persons, free or slaves, were compelled to have a pass; free colored people having a guardian in place of a master…Each person had to have this pass for at nine o’clock each night a bell was rung, and any colored persons found on the street after this hour were arrested by the watchman, and put in the guard-house until next morning when their owners would pay their fines and release them.” She also notes at this time in her life “I had been reading so much about the ‘Yankees’ I was very anxious to see them
View attachment 81040


https://ehistory.osu.edu/articles/susan-baker-king-taylor-reminiscences-life-33d-us-colored-troops

In April 1862 Baker and many other African Americans fled to St. Simons Island, occupied at the time by Union forces. Within days her educational advantages came to the attention of army officers, who offered to obtain books for her if she would organize a school. She thereby became the first black teacher for freed African American students to work in a freely operating freedmen's school in Georgia. She taught forty children in day school and "a number of adults who came to me nights, all of them so eager to learn to read, to read above anything else." She taught there until October 1862, when the island was evacuated.
View attachment 81044
Her legacy, and the legacy of all our teachers, one of he schools post war, this one in Georgia.

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/susie-king-taylor-1848-1912

While at the school on St. Simons Island, Baker married Edward King, a black noncommissioned officer in the First South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent (later reflagged as 33rd United States Colored Troops 8 February 1864 which was disbanded at Fort Wagner in 1866).

For three years she moved with her husband's and brothers' regiment, serving as nurse and teaching many of the black soldiers to read and write during their off-duty hours.

In 1866 she and Edward returned to Savannah, where she established a school for the freed children. Edward King died in September 1866, a few months before the birth of their first child. ( edit ) he died in a work-related accident at the pier unloading ships. Also around this time Taylor closed her school when a free school opened nearby . In 1867 she returned to her native Liberty County to establish another school. In 1868 she again relocated to Savannah, where she continued teaching freedmen ..
wikipedia]Susie_Taylor

View attachment 81046
I think this is one of the island schools, please excuse, cannot remember which. These school functioned many years post war. There was a lot to accomplish, so many lovely young minds to fill with knowledge.

Ending here. Bios being what they are one's old age and death are far too open subjectively. Given Susie King Taylor's entire life, her unstoppable energy, commitment, brilliance of mind and character you just know she her private moments before deserved, blessed long rest were filled with content. She'd done what she was put here to do. Thank you, Susie King Taylor.

View attachment 81049
View attachment 81050
View attachment 81051
Because this photo of a Freedman's School in South Carolina is so delightful, so hopeful a moment captured in time, it deserves much viewing in honor of students and teacher equally.

The first pic (even though it's a seriously awesome pic) is not of Susie but of a young nurse in NYC, closer to the turn of the century (I can't remember the exact date).

Thanks for the pics of the freedmen's school, those are wonderful. It amazes me, the stuff you are able to find.
 
rosefiend I tried to look up the first picture. Every time I found it was labeled Susie King Taylor. I wonder if anyone else has tried to find out who it is and if it is in any of the books on her.

Here is the source of the postcard. It's an image from the late 1800s -- Susie would have been a little older than this young lady. https://www.flickr.com/photos/82329524@N00/319299525/

She's a young nurse in NYC, but no name was on the postcard when that gentleman bought it.

ETA: Oh, yeah, the person who did try to find out who this lady was? It was me. :rolleyes:
 
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No time to do more than say thank you for giving the nice young nurse her own ID even if we still do not have a name! Edit done, think we'll keep her photo there. She's officially Un- Susied; seems a pity to unCWT her, toboot.

Found yet more school photos, these from Beaufort- flattened me! Charlotte Forten genre, will post tomorrow. Love those!
 
Have these on another thread; in honor of Susie King Taylor and gosh, her peers. Conflagration of talent and brains touched off by the war- waHOOM. Formerly restrained by literal guns to their heads from pursing education- much less using it; photos like these testimony to the bee-line made to the first chances to learn and teach and pursue. Unstoppable.

beaufort freed children.jpg

This seems post-war, no less wonderful, would not have existed a few years previously. Beaufort, SC, where so many, many educations occurred- then spread outward like an endless, indistinguishable firecracker. You know those firecrackers that pop-pop-pop-pop along the ground, you never think they'll stop? That.

beaufort library1  af am teachers.jpg


Educators and students, Beaufort, SC library. There's a woman on the right end whose outline is delightful. She reminds me of every school teacher I ever had in the 60's. You so badly wanted to do well, when you didn't she would look a little sad... . That was worse than the thought of the big paddle principals had.

beaufort myrtle plantatn.jpg

Some hysterical passages somewhere, a Union officer baffled ex-enslaved would not volunteer to continue working abandoned plantations for free around Beaufort. Hee! They did not. What they did do was agree to wages, being the only people trained in the actual running of a large farm. The smart Union administration agreed to this and were fed.

beaufort teachers1.jpg

Teachers, yes, white- and determined to just, plain help. Women left home and hearth for Beaufort, SC. The need for teachers was great which was a good thing because risking life and limb suited some of these women just fine. History does not record names always- but fame isn't why they came. They came to balance scales set wildly askew generations earlier when the first ships with chained humans in their holds anchored in the bays of our America.
 
I read King's book many years ago when I was doing graduate work. Recommended. It was prompted by a visit she made to Lousiana to nurse one of her sons, at the height of Jim Crow. Black vets are afraid to wear their GAR pins in public, which angered her as an active member of the GAR's ladies auxiliery. "Sherman should come through here again" she quotes other person.

Laura Towne's letters and journals about her time as a teacher in the Sea Islands has been published as well. I think she had a thread here as well.
 
Excellent story about Susie King Taylor. I don't think I'd ever heard of her before. The Find A Grave site mentions her plot is unmarked which saddens me greatly after the extraordinary life she led and all the people she helped for so many years in all those various roles of nurse, teacher and midwife among other duties.
I'd never heard of her either.
 
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