Army nurse
Nurse/1902
Susie King Taylor the daughter of slaves, was born in Liberty County on August 6, 1848. When she was about seven years old, her owner allowed her to go to Savannah to live with her grandmother. Despite Georgia's harsh laws against the formal education of African Americans, she attended two secret schools taught by black women. From them she gained the rudiments of literacy, then extended her education with the help of two white youths, both of whom knowingly violated law and custom. In April 1862 Baker and many other African Americans fled to St. Simon Island, occupied at the time by Union forces. Within days her educational advantages came to the attention of army officers, who offered to obtain books for her if she would organize a school. She thereby became the first black teacher for freed African American students to work in a freely operating freedmen's school in Georgia. She taught forty children in day school and "a number of adults who came to me nights, all of them so eager to learn to read, to read above anything else." She taught there until October 1862, when the island was evacuated. While at the school on St. Simon Island, Baker married Edward King, a black non commissioned officer in the Union forces. For three years she moved with her husband's and brothers' regiment, serving as nurse and laundress, and teaching many of the black soldiers to read and write during their off-duty hours. In 1866 she and Edward returned to Savannah, where she established a school for the freed children. Edward King died in September 1866, a few months before the birth of their first child. In 1867 she returned to her native Liberty County to establish another school. In 1868 she again relocated to Savannah, where she continued teaching freedmen for another year and supported herself through small tuition charges, never receiving aid from the northern freedmen's aid organizations. In the 1870s King traveled to Boston as a domestic servant of a wealthy white family. While there she met and married Russell Taylor. She remained in Boston for the rest of her life, returning to the South only occasionally. |
I gave my service willingly for four years and three months without receiving a dollar. I was glad, however, to be allowed to go with the regiment, to care for the sick and afflicted comrades.” |
what did she do
Susie Taylor has helped a lot of people for being a nurse. Susie Baker King Taylor was the first African American to teach openly in a school for former slaves in Georgia. Susie King Taylor was the first African American to teach openly in a school for former slaves, and the only black woman to publish a memoir of her Civil War experience. Taylor was forced to find work as a domestic servant.
She moved to Boston in 1872 where she married Russell Taylor in 1879. She devoted much of the rest of her life to work with the Woman’s Relief Corps, a national organization for female Civil War veterans. She died in 1912, ten years after publishing her memoir.
She moved to Boston in 1872 where she married Russell Taylor in 1879. She devoted much of the rest of her life to work with the Woman’s Relief Corps, a national organization for female Civil War veterans. She died in 1912, ten years after publishing her memoir.
Breaking Barriers
Susie Taylor was born into slavery so she had to deal with a a lot of racism and she had no formal medical training and received no pay for her labors. In addition to acting as a nurse, she taught many men to read and write. Susie Taylor would be an avid educator for the rest of her life, teaching adults and children alike. she was able to go to the army because she learned to handle a musket very well...and could shoot straight and often hit the target.” Susie served as a nurse at a hospital for African American soldiers in Beaumont, South Carolina, where she met and worked with Clara Barton. For four years and three months, she served the Union military without pay.