16/11/2025
When Susie King Taylor was born into slavery in 1848, it was illegal to educate African Americans in Georgia but she learned to read and write at a young age thanks to a secret school. After she fled to Union-controlled St. Simons Island during the U.S. Civil War, her talents brought her to the attention of Union officers who asked the teenager if she would organize a school if they could obtain books and materials. She gladly agreed and, at age 14, Taylor became the first Black teacher for freed African-Americans at a freely operating school in Georgia. She taught 40 children in a day school and, as she wrote in her memoir, “a number of adults who came to me nights, all of them so eager to learn to read, to read above anything else.”
Soon after, she married Edward King, an African-American non-commissioned officer stationed there with the First South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent. When the island was evacuated in 1862, she opted to follow his regiment as a nurse. For three years, she served as an unpaid nurse for the regiment, and taught many Black soldiers to read and write in their off-duty hours. After the war was over, Taylor and her husband returned to Savannah, Georgia where she established another school for freed African-American children. Sadly, her husband died shortly afterward, and the opening of a free school nearby forced Taylor to close hers. Seeking new opportunities, she traveled to Boston as the domestic servant of a wealthy family and remarried in 1879.
More than ten years later -- and over thirty years after the end of the Civil War -- she wrote one of the most detailed memoirs ever written by a woman about life in a Civil War camp. Her memoir, “Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers,” was also the only memoir ever written by an African-American woman about her experience during the Civil War. In it, Taylor emphasized the important role of Black troops, as well as the often unrecognized role that women played during the Civil War: “There were loyal women, as well as men, in those days who did not fear the shell or the shot, who cared for the sick and the dying.”
Susie King Taylor is also the author of the only memoir published by an African American woman about her experiences during the Civil War -- it is still in print today at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780820326665 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/3SyjpaI (Amazon)
To introduce children to her heroic story, we recommend “Memoir of Susie King Taylor: A Civil War Nurse,” which uses excerpts from Taylor’s own words to bring Civil War history alive for ages 9 to 12 (https://www.amightygirl.com/memoir-of-susie-king-taylor) and "Susie King Taylor: Nurse, Teacher & Freedom Fighter" for ages 10 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/susie-king-taylor)
Taylor's Civil War contributions are also recounted in the excellent book about 16 women who made a mark during the war: “Courageous Women of the Civil War" for teens and adults, ages 13 an up, at https://www.amightygirl.com/courageous-women-civil-war
For an uplifting picture book about a woman who ran a secret school, we recommend "Midnight Teacher: Lilly Ann Granderson and Her Secret School" for ages 6 to 9 at https://www.amightygirl.com/midnight-teacher
For children's books about more trailblazing African-American women, visit our blog post "99 Books about Extraordinary Black Mighty Girls and Women" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14276 da
