Susie King Taylor: Educator and Nurse

One of the unsung heroines of Savannah is Susie Baker King Taylor. She was born in Liberty County on August 6, 1848. She was the daughter of slaves. When she was seven she was sent to Savannah to live with her grandmother. And even though she was not allowed to have an education by the decree of the state of Georgia, what I call the Underground School Movement taught her. These were schools outlawed by state decree but that taught slaves in secret.

In 1862 during the Civil War she fled to St. Simon’s Island which was occupied by Union troops. Her education led the Army officers to obtain books for her to organize a school to teach the recently freed African American students. This made her the first black teacher for freed African American students in a freedmen's school in Georgia. She taught there for over a year.

For the next three years she traveled with the 33rd United States Colored Troops. She would write of her adventures in a book called Reminiscences of My Life in Camp. She would be the only African American woman to write of her experiences. In 1866, now married, she returned to Savannah where she started a school for the freed children. In 1868 she taught freedmen, supporting herself through small tuition charges and not accepting pay from the northern freedman’s aid organizations.
In the 1870s she went to Boston to work as a domestic servant of a ‘Brahmin’ family. She would remain in Boston for the rest of her life. In Boston she became involved in the Women’s Relief Corps as a nurse. She became president of this group, which gave assistance to soldiers and hospitals. Some have called her as influential as the better known Clara Barton. In her time traveling with the 33rd Regiment and now as President of the Women’s Relief Corps she was influential in recruiting Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth in her efforts.

Although her life was dedicated to serving others and brought her some fame, she is buried in an unmarked grave in Mount Hope Cemetery in Massachusetts. She wrote in her memoirs “We hope for better conditions in the future and feel sure they will come in time, surely if slowly.” This quote was emblematic of her undying belief that you could change things even in the worst of times. Maybe one day Savannah can erect a monument to celebrate her life and time in Savannah and beyond.
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