Straight Outta Slavery/Freedwomen: Learning to Live in Liberty

Hermina Glass-Hill Discussion
Type: 
Lecture
Date: 
November 3, 2015
Location: 
Georgia, United States
Subject Fields: 
African American History / Studies, Economic History / Studies, Women's & Gender History / Studies

This lecture will discuss, in general, former slaves' adaptations to the social, economic, and educational transitions from enslavement to freedom In the American South. Specific attention will focus on freedwomen and the importance of education. While a young slave child in Savannah, Susie King Taylor attended a series of clandestine, or secret, schools risking life and limb if caught by her slave owner.

This dexterity of literacy, both dangerous and advantageous, saved her life during the War of Southern Rebellion when she and family members fled to St. Catherine Island for protection from the Confederate army. There the commanding Union officers noticed her abilities and selected her to teach other enslaved refugees how to read and write.

Later evacuated to St. Simon Island, she married Edward King, a non-commissioned officer of the First South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent (reflagged as the 33rd United States Colored Troop 8). She traveled with the 33rd USCT teaching them to read and write, laundering officers’ clothes, and tending to injured soldiers as a nurse. She was a cohort of Sara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross.

Where: Kennesaw, GA-  State University, Social Sciences Bldg Room 1019

Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Time: 7:00PM – 8:00PM