Susie King Taylor Essay

Susie King Taylor

Born to slave parents in Georgia August 6, 1848, Susie King Taylor was looking at a life of hardships and discrimination. She was raised on the Isle of Wight to the farm of the Grest family. She did have an advantage compared to other slaves and that her parents, Hagar Ann Reed and Raymond Baker, were favored by their owners and given special benefits. And, in this she was able to be sent to live with her grandmother in Savannah, Georgia when she was seven years old.

While living with her grandmother, Taylor, along with her sister and brother were secretly taught how to read and write by a freedwoman who was a friend of her grandmother’s. She and the other children being taught had to stay as discreet as possible. They would

Simons Island were they found refuge in the Union army. While under the protection of the Union she became a school teacher for the ex slave’s children on the island. By the fall of 1862, Taylor and the rest of the island civilians had to leave the island due to concerns for their safety.

Not wanting to sit on the sidelines, Taylor joined Company E under the well known First South Carolina Volunteers as a laundress. This was the first official black regiment of the Union army. She worked as their cook, laundress, nurse, and teacher. For four years and three months she accompanied the regiment without receiving any pay and didn’t qualify to receive a pension after the war was over. But, she got satisfaction knowing that she was helping her comrades.

At the end of the war, King and her husband moved to Savannah, where she founded a school to teach african american children. While in Savannah her husband died due to a work related incident forcing Tyler to quit teaching and work for better pay as a laundress and cook. In 1874, when King was more financially stable she moved to Boston where she remarried and continued her contribution for

Nearing the end of her life, King helped organize the Corps 67, Women’s Relief Corps which was an organization for fair treatment of black veterans. She became treasurer and later the president of the organization. After living a long and noble life, Susie King Taylor died on October 6, 1912, in Boston Massachusetts.

The majority of research that I referenced was from a book that was written by Taylor herself called, Reminiscences Of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops Late 1st S.C. Volunteers. Having a first person view of Taylor’s life and how she interpreted things helped me understand why she did some of the things she did and how they affected her personally. This helped me understand the type of person she was and gave me a more fleshed out history of her life.

Now for my 2nd primary source I used a letter written to Taylor, by the commander of the regiment she assisted in, Charles Taylor Trowbridge. The letter itself didn’t contain plenty of information of Taylor or of her actions, but what it did was support the reliability of the book she wrote. It confirmed to me that Taylor was selfless and devoted to her cause and she had a major impact to the people around