Anyone's Ancestor A Volunteer Teacher, Please?

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
teachers richmond.jpg

Teaching went beyond learning to read. Men and women whose lives had been strictly dictated were taught skills enabling them to find their feet in their new world. The Freedmen's Bureau asked and teachers went. Who were they?

It's fairly easy finding information on ACW nurses. Beyond current sites, there are dozens of post war book about them, some written by women who answered that call. Much more difficult is finding the teachers who left homes in the North and answered the call that went out for women to teach a newly freed population. Most famous are the Carolina schools; schools in Richmond, Charleston and other cities also sprang up, requiring teachers.

Once did a thread about a poem written written by one of these teachers. It was about a Maine boy's grave by the sea she'd come across. I tracked down one of her relatives on Ancestry and received a lovely reply. This relative hadn't known of the poem but knew all about the many family members who had made the same trip. New England seems to have been represented by dozens if not not hundreds of teachers yet we don't hear of them. There are several famous names- Charlotte Forten and Mary Peake's legends are fortunately beautifully documented. We don't know many more names and it's important we do.

teacher freedmans.jpg

Charlotte and Mary were two of the women whose names and stories we know. There were others, leaving homes and traveling hundreds of miles. To teach.

It's a huge piece of ACW history and seems to lack its deserved amount of attention. @John Hartwell , if anyone has more information on who these women were, you would? I'm asking if anyone has one of these women in their ancestry. The helpful relative of the poem's author said quite a few family members answered the call for teachers. It makes me hopeful more are out there and would help give names ( and stories! ) to these women.

Anyway, love to hear names and stories, please. It'll be far too much information for a thread later but I'll try, given enough information.
 
I've come across names of a number of these heroic women (and some men, too), but I'm afraid I haven't taken particular note of them. Right now I can only offer this, from 1864: Extracts from letters of teachers and superintendents of the New-England Educational Commission for Freedmen. I'm sure there were many similar "reports," etc, giving their names, relating their experiences. I'll try to track some down.

Also, there are a LOT of excellent links to follow in https://www.americanantiquarian.org/Freedmen/Intros/freedteachers.html, part of the American Antiquarian Society's Northern Visions of Race, Region and Reform project.
 
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Teaching went beyond learning to read. Men and women whose lives had been strictly dictated were taught skills enabling them to find their feet in their new world. The Freedmen's Bureau asked and teachers went. Who were they?

It's fairly easy finding information on ACW nurses. Beyond current sites, there are dozens of post war book about them, some written by women who answered that call. Much more difficult is finding the teachers who left homes in the North and answered the call that went out for women to teach a newly freed population. Most famous are the Carolina schools; schools in Richmond, Charleston and other cities also sprang up, requiring teachers.

Once did a thread about a poem written written by one of these teachers. It was about a Maine boy's grave by the sea she'd come across. I tracked down one of her relatives on Ancestry and received a lovely reply. This relative hadn't known of the poem but knew all about the many family members who had made the same trip. New England seems to have been represented by dozens if not not hundreds of teachers yet we don't hear of them. There are several famous names- Charlotte Forten and Mary Peake's legends are fortunately beautifully documented. We don't know many more names and it's important we do.

View attachment 316181
Charlotte and Mary were two of the women whose names and stories we know. There were others, leaving homes and traveling hundreds of miles. To teach.

It's a huge piece of ACW history and seems to lack its deserved amount of attention. @John Hartwell , if anyone has more information on who these women were, you would? I'm asking if anyone has one of these women in their ancestry. The helpful relative of the poem's author said quite a few family members answered the call for teachers. It makes me hopeful more are out there and would help give names ( and stories! ) to these women.

Anyway, love to hear names and stories, please. It'll be far too much information for a thread later but I'll try, given enough information.
While at the library today on another matter, I saw a book that you should find interesting: Jacqueline Jones, Soldiers of Light and Love, Northern Teachers and Georgia Blacks 1865-1873, UNC Press, 1980.
 
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