Susie King Taylor

Susie King Taylor
Born	Susan Ann Baker August 6, 1848 Liberty County, Georgia
Died	October 6, 1912 (age 64)
Resting place	Mount Hope Cemetery, Roslindale, Massachusetts
Citizenship	American
Known for	Author Civil War Nurse Educator
Spouse(s)	Edward King (???-1866) Russell L. Taylor (1879-1912)

Susie King Taylor (August 6, 1848 - October 6, 1912) is known for being the first Black nurse during the American Civil War. Beyond just her aptitude in nursing the wounded of the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Taylor was the first Black woman to self-publish her memoirs. She was the author of Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers. She was also an educator to formerly bonded Black people in the postbellum South by opening various schools in Georgia. Taylor would, in 1886, finally be a part of organizing the 67 Corps of the Women's Relief Corps.^[1]

Biography[]

Childhood[]

Susie King Taylor, a.k.a Susan Ann Baker, was the first of nine children born to Raymond and Hagar Ann Baker on August 6, 1848. While it is not entirely clear from her writings, it is believed that she was a bondsperson on a plantation owned by Valentine Grest on the Isle of Wight in Liberty County, Georgia.^[1] Taylor is recognized as being a member of the Gullah peoples of the coastal lowlands of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.^[2] When she was about seven years old, her grandmother Dolly Reed was allowed, by the plantation owner, to take Susie to go live with her in Savannah, Georgia.^[1] She moved to her grandmother's house with her younger brother and sister. Susie’s grandmother would send her and her brother to be educated through something known as an "underground education." Under Georgia law, it was illegal for enslaved people to be educated. Taylor and her brother would be taught by a friend of Dolly’s, a woman known as Mrs. Woodhouse. She was a free woman of color that lived a half mile away from Susie’s house. Mrs. Woodhouse would have the students enter one at a time with their books covered to keep from drawing too much attention by the police or the local white population. Taylor would attend school with about 25 to 30 children which would last for another two years. At which point, she would then find instruction from another free woman of color, Mrs. Mary Beasley who would continue to educate Taylor until 1860. Dolly continuously to support people in the education of her granddaughter. Taylor would become friends with a white playmate named Katie O’Connor who attended a local convent, who would continue to give Taylor an education. After four months, this would end due to O’Connor being put into a convent permanently. Lastly, Taylor would be educated by the son of the landlord, a boy named James Blouis. Her education would prove paramount.^[1]

The ability to read and write would give Susie Taylor King power and protection to people of color both those free and in bondage. She would write passes that would give some amount of security to Black people who were out on the street after a particular bell was rung at nine o’clock at night. This would help keep the pass holders from being arrested by the watchman and placed in a guardhouse until the fines were paid by their master or guardian in order to release them. It was actions like these that continue to put into mind the struggles faced by Black people living in Georgia.  She would be exposed to much propaganda that attempted to paint the Yankees as people who would only further subjugate the Black population. Taylor, however, saw the importance of supporting the Yankees and in 1862, she would take her next steps to help obtain her own freedom.^[1]

American Civil War[]

Teacher[]

Susie King Taylor's school in Savannah, GA.

In 1862, during a battle between the Confederate and Union army at Fort Pulaski, Susie King Taylor used the chaos of the battle to flee from the south and arrived at St. Catherine's Island along with her uncle and his family.^[3] Taylor later traveled to St. Simons Island where she met Lieutenant Commander Pendleton G. Watmough. Taylor impressed Lieutenant Watmough with her ability to read and write as he considered it uncommon for African Americans from the South.^[1] After their arrival at St. Simons Island, Lieutenant Watmough arranged for Taylor to become a teacher for both children and adults. At the age of fourteen, Susie King Taylor founded the first free African American school for children, and also became the first African American woman to teach a free school in Georgia.^[4] During the day, Taylor educated over forty children, and at her night school, adults attended her classes. When Taylor joined the 33rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment, she originally served as a laundress, but later also became a teacher to the colored troops alongside her first husband, Sergeant Edward King.^[5] Both Taylor and her husband helped further expand the education of many colored soldiers by teaching them how to read and write in their spare time.^[6]

Nurse[]

In her memoirs, Susie King Taylor, does not extensively discuss her participation as a nurse. However, what is known is that she first shares that she began her time as a laundress in the 33rd regiment as many other women had at that time. At some point though, while not spoken about directly, she was asked to help act as a nurse. In a letter to her from, Colonel C.T Trowbridge, an officer of the 33rd regiment, he discusses the fact that is she is unable to be placed on a pensioners role for her actions but was in fact an army nurse. He explains she is a person that is the most deserved of this pension regardless.^[1] In February 1862, she shared about how she assisted with helping nurse a fellow comrade in the military company she was serving with during the American Civil War. Edward Davis contracted varioloid, a form of smallpox that happens once a person is vaccinated from the disease.^[1] She would attend to him every day in hopes of aiding his recovery. However, despite the effort and attention, he passed. She also helped in the recovery of smallpox as she had become vaccinated to the disease. She insisted that sassafras tea, if drank consistently, would help ensure that one could ward off the terrible disease. During her time as a nurse, she met Clara Barton, who later founded the American Red Cross. Taylor visited the hospital at Camp Shaw in Beaufort, South Carolina. Taylor would often tend to the wounded and sick.^[1]

Reconstruction[]

After the American Civil War ended and the Reconstruction Era began, Susie King Taylor and Edward King left the 33rd regiment and returned to Savannah, Georgia. While Taylor opened a school for African American children and an adult night school on South Broad Street, Edward tried to find a job in his trade as a carpenter.^[5] However, strong prejudices against the newly freed African Americans prevented Edward from securing a job despite being a skilled carpenter.^[3] In September 1866, Edward King died a few months before his child with Taylor was born. Edward King died in a docking accident while he worked as a longshoreman.^[3] Although sources are a bit unclear on how many schools Taylor opened, they all state that she had to eventually closed them all as more schools for African Americans were established and she could no longer make a living through teaching.^[4] Taylor eventually took a job as a domestic servant to a wealthy white family. In 1870, Taylor traveled to Boston with the family, where she met her second husband, Russell L. Taylor.

During the Reconstruction Era, Taylor became a civil rights activist after witnessing much discrimination in the South, where Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan mocked and terrorized African Americans.^[3] In her book, Taylor mentions the constant lynching of Blacks and how southern laws were against anyone who was not white.^[1] Towards the end of her life, Taylor sought to provide aid to Afro-Cubans after the end of the Spanish American War. Taylor noticed that Afro-Cubans were being discriminated against in a similar way to what African Americans faced during Reconstruction.^[5]

Women’s Relief Corp[]

Susie King Taylor was part of organizing the Corps 67 of the Women's Relief Corps in 1886. She held many positions, including guard, secretary, and treasure. In 1893, she was elected president of corps 67. In 1896, she helped with taking census of the veterans of the American Civil War which would benefit many of her fellow comrades.^[1]

Legacy[]

Despite not having the biggest voice as a Black female bondsperson, Susie King Taylor has left a lasting legacy especially in her hometown of Georgia. In 2018, Taylor was elected to the Georgia Women of Achievement Hall of Fame for her contributions to education, freedom, and humanity during her lifetime. Aside from being the first Black army nurse, Taylor was also the first Black woman to teach in a school dedicated to the education of former slaves. Between 1866 and 1868, she opened and taught at least at three schools all in the state of Georgia. In celebration of her love for teaching and education, in 2015, a school was opened in her name. The Susie King Taylor Community School can be found in her birthplace of Savannah, GA. A few miles from the school, near the Midway First Presbyterian Church, stands the first historic marker for Taylor. This marker was constructed in 2019 by the Georgia Historical Society and commemorates Taylor’s life and career in education, literature, and medicine.^[7]

References[]

Further reading[]

• Espiritu, Allison. 2007. Black Past. February 26. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/taylor-susan-susie-baker-king-1848-1912/.
• Everts, Cynthia Ann. 2016. “Unbounded: Susie King Taylor's Civil War.” Master's thesis, Harvard Extension School. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33797298.
• Fleming, John E. "Slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction: A Study of Black Women in Microcosm." Negro History Bulletin 38, no. 6 (August-September 1975): 430-433. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44175355.
• Groeling, Meg. 2019. Emerging Civil War. February 27. https://emergingcivilwar.com/2019/02/27/susie-king-taylor-the-first-african-american-army-nurse/.
• King, Stewart, "Taylor, Susie Baker King" in Encyclopedia of Free Blacks & People of Color in the Americas, (New York: Facts on File 2012), 762-763.
• Mohr, Clarence L. "Before Sherman: Georgia Blacks and the Union War Effort, 1861-1864." The Journal of Southern History 45, no. 3 (1979): 331-52. doi:10.2307/2208198.
• Robert C. Morris, Reading, 'Riting, and Reconstruction: The Education of Freedmen in the South, 1861-1870 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981).
• Taylor, Susie King, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp, in Collected Black Women's Narratives, edited by Anthony Barthelemy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

External Links[]

• https://www.susiekingtaylorinstitute.org/
• https://www.loc.gov/ghe/cascade/index.html?appid=5be2377c246c4b5483e32ddd51d32dc0&bookmark=Battlefront%20Words