Susie King Taylor

susie King Taylor (1848-1912), known as America’s first Black nurse, was born August 6, 1848. Beyond just her aptitude in nursing the wounded of the 1st Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Taylor was the first black woman to self-publish her memoirs.

She was an author and a nurse, but she was also an educator. She taught formerly enslaved black people in the post Ellis south by opening various schools in Georgia. She was also instrumental in organizing the 67 Corps of the Women’s Relief Corps in 1886.

She was born into slavery on a plantation in Liberty County Georgia. She was a member of the Gullah Peoples of the coastal lowlands of Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida.

At the age of seven, she was brought to live with family in Savannah Georgia. There, she was educated in what was known as an “underground education “. Under Georgia law, it was Illegal for enslaved people to be educated.

A friend of her grandmother, Mrs. Woodhouse, taught Taylor and her brother to read. This lasted for two years, until Taylor received further education from Georgia’s first black nun Mary Beasley, who continued to educate Susie until 1860.

There were several other people that contributed to her education, whites like Katie O’Conner and James Blouis.

Her ability to read and write helped countless people of color, both freed and those still in bondage. During the war between the Confederate and Union Army at Fort Pulaski, Taylor and her family fled to St. Catherine’s Island, and then to St. Simon’s Island.