Susie King Taylor

Give light and people will find the way, Said Ella Baker. She was a woman, who even in the darkest hour, gave light to people everywhere. Being a Civil Rights activist in the 1930’s, she was one of the leading figures in the Civil Rights Movement. She dedicated her life to fighting for freedom and equality, and she deserves to be recognized worldwide.

John. W. Blessingame, The Slave Community: The Plantation Life in The Antebellum South (Oxford University Press, Inc: 1972, 1979).

     During the Civil War, which began in 1861, Tubman served as a nurse, scout, and spy for the Union Army in South Carolina. She helped cook and prepare food for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, which was made up of all black soldiers and was better known as the Glory Brigade. She later received an award for her efforts, but no pay.

While in slavery she was not allowed to learn how to read or write, and only

Madam C. J. Walker was born on December 23rd, 1867 as Sarah Breedlove, to Owen and Minerva Breedlove, who were former slaves enslaved to Robert W. Burney’s Madison Parish. She was the first of child born into freedom among her five siblings, after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Her siblings included one older sister, Louvenia and four brethren: James, Solomon, Owen Jr. and Alexander. At six years of age, her mother passed away probably

Based on the evidence supplied by author Kent Anderson Leslie, slaves in antebellum Georgia did not always live under the oppressive system of chattel labor. According to Leslie, the rules that applied to racial hierarchy were not strictly enforced, especially when it came to propertied and wealthy planters such as David Dickson who chose to raise his mixed-race daughter at home. Amanda Dickson’s experiences during Reconstruction demonstrate that she had much more freedom after slavery was abolished than may have been expected before the Civil War. Amanda Dickson’s experiences and those of her mother in particular do not fit the presumed mold of oppressed slave with no opportunity for a better life.

And so, rather than try to reason with those who thought she was a lesser being, Brown appealed to their egos. She would create stories of helpless uneducated slaves and their white “protectors,” dismissing her heritage to appease whites. By acting “white”, and twisting the beliefs of white supremacists to her benefit, Brown rose to a prominent education position. To gain respect she was forced to give up part of her identity. She rebranded herself as a New Englander to distance herself from slavery. When taking students into the city, they “…did not mingle with Greensboro’s African Americans…” Brown taught her students the ideals she practiced, in hopes that they too might find a reputable place in the Jim Crow South.

Elijah’s daughter, Luvenia, struggles to get a job and into college in Chicago while her brother Richard travels back to South Carolina. Abby’s grandson, Tommy works with civil rights and protests, and tries to get into college for basketball. The story ends with Malcolm, Richard’s grandson, getting his his cousin Shep, who is struggling with drugs, to the family reunion. In reading this story one could wonder how the transition from slavery to segregation in the United States really occurred. The timeline can be split into three distinct sections, Emancipation, forming segregation, and life post-Civil War, pre-civil rights.

She later got caught and was later put into prison in 1864 by confederate troops and taken into prison. Along with Mary Edward walker, Clara Barton, was an Army nurse. Clara was to serve help in curing injured men. She had a bad experience when she went to go cure a man, a bullet that killed the man she was helping was peireced threw her sleeve. She had been assisting him and tried to save him, but it was too late and he had died. Also these women made a legacy in life, Underground Railroad, being the first US army women surgeon, and the foundation of the American Red Cross. Mary Todd Lincoln, who was married to Abraham Lincoln. Although she was a lot different then the other important women in the civil war, she was just as important. She was the wife of the president during the war. Although she did not exactly fight or become a nurse of the war, she still had to take care of her family and all of Abraham’s stressful days. She had to mend to her children’s needs while Abraham was out making sure the troops in the war were in the right standings. When 1865 came around it was a terrible year for her, her family and her heart were crushed. Her loved one was assassinated, and her family and herself had no idea how to handle it. Being that she was the presidents wife, she was still important to make a legacy. Showed that women are strong enough to handle stress, children, and deaths in their family to be strong for

Blassingame, John W. The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Esther Hill Hawks, M.D. is one of the many women that decided to stay away from the battlefields in order to support the Union Army. She and her husband were well to do doctors that worked in a hospital that took in and cared for black soldiers. On one day Hawks was to expect over five hundred wounded soldiers.

The narrative entitled “Reminiscences of My Life in Camp” is an up close look into the life of Susie King Taylor. Susie King Taylor was an African American woman born as a slave in Savannah Georgia during the antebellum period of America. Susie Taylor was born 14 years before the start of the civil war. A war that would eventually lead to the abolishment of slavery in America. The narrative of Susie Taylor tells her story as an individual, but still provides information about life during the war. Throughout the story Taylor talks about what it was like experiencing the war so closely and how life within a Black infantry included racism, discrimination, violence, and illness. Taylor also gives us details about her childhood, education, and the bond she developed with the Black soldiers. Above all we get to see how education shaped Taylor’s life and the lives of those that she was around. Education was highly important in Susie King Taylor’s life because it gave her a greater

As a nurse, she made a remedy she had learned while she lived in Maryland which helped save a numerous amount of people that suffered from dysentery. Tubman also offered her services to soldiers and newly freed slaves in South Carolina. As a spy, she would disguise herself as an old woman and wondered the streets of many towns under Confederate control. As Harriet Tubman wondered, she would encounter many people who were still enslaved. The slaves she encountered “willingly provided a wealth of information concerning troop placements and supply lines” (Harriet Tubman c. 1820 – 1913). Apart from her regular work as a spy, during one occasion, Tubman joined Colonel James Montgomery “in an assault on several plantations along the Combahee River” (Harriet Tubman: Underground Railroad “Conductor”, Nurse, Spy). During this mission, she helped over seven-hundred people gain their freedom. Harriet Tubman’s assistance during the Civil War contributed to the victory of the Union and resulted in the abolishment of slavery. Although the victory of the Union did not completely establish equality, it was a major step forward toward equality. Because of this, Americans in today’s society do not live segregated by law, are seen equal by the law, and the practice of slavery is no longer

On February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts, a woman by the name of Susan Brownell Anthony was born to parents Daniel and Lucy (Read) Anthony. She was the second born of a strongly rooted Quaker family of eight (Hist.Bio.-1). Because they lived in a Quaker neighborhood, Susan was not heavily exposed to slavery. The family made anti-slavery talks an almost daily conversation over the dinner table. She also saw men and women on the same level (Stoddard 36). “A hard working father, who was not only a cotton manufacturer, but a Quaker Abolitionist also, prevented his children from what he called childish things such as toys, games and music. He felt that they would distract his children from reaching their peak of

In 1863, Susie traveled with her husband’s regiment. She became the first black nurse during the Civil War, and helped to care for wounded soldiers. During her off hours she taught the soldiers how to read and write, and also cooked and laundered for them. She wrote in her diary about the nursing shortages during the war, and was happy to provide nursing care to the sick soldiers. She continued to serve as a nurse until the war ended in 1865. (MacLean, 2007).