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Early American Places is a collaborative project of the University of Georgia Press, New York University Press, Northern Illinois University Press, and the University of Nebraska Press. The series is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information, please visit www.earlyamericanplaces.org.
ADVISORY BOARD
Vincent Brown, Duke University
Andrew Cayton, Miami University
Cornelia Hughes Dayton, University of Connecticut
Nicole Eustace, New York University
Amy S. Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University
Ramón A. Gutiérrez, University of Chicago
Peter Charles Hoffer, University of Georgia
Karen Ordahl Kupperman, New York University
Joshua Piker, College of William & Mary
Mark M. Smith, University of South Carolina
Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University
IN PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE
Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America
KABRIA BAUMGARTNER
New York University Press
NEW YORK
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
© 2019 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Baumgartner, Kabria, 1982– author.
Title: In pursuit of knowledge : black women and educational activism in antebellum America / Kabria Baumgartner.
Description: New York : New York University Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “‘In Pursuit of Knowledge’ explores Black women and educational activism in Antebellum America”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019009450 | ISBN 9781479823116 (cloth)
Subjects: LCSH: African American women educators—History—19th century. | African American women political activists—History—19th century. | African Americans—Education—History—19th century. | African Americans—Social conditions—19th century. | United States—Race relations—History—19th century.
Classification: LCC LC2741 .B38 2019 | DDC 371.829/96073—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019009450
For Ella and Maya
CONTENTS
List of Figures
Introduction: Purposeful Womanhood
PART I. WHAT OUR MINDS HAVE LONG DESIRED
1 Prayer and Protest at the Canterbury Female Seminary
2 Race and Reform at the Young Ladies’ Domestic Seminary
3 Women Teachers in New York City
PART II. GOD PROTECT THE RIGHT
4 Race, Gender, and the American High School
5 Black Girlhood and Equal School Rights
6 Character Education and the Antebellum Classroom
Conclusion: Going Forward
Acknowledgments
Appendix A. List of Black Students at the Canterbury Female Seminary in Connecticut
Appendix B. List of Black Students at the Young Ladies’ Domestic Seminary in New York
Appendix C. List of Black Families in the Northeast
Appendix D. Physical Attacks on Black Schools in the Northeast, 1830–1845
Notes
Index
About the Author
I.1. “Colored scholars excluded from schools”
1.1. Sarah Harris
1.2. Prudence Crandall
1.3. “Colored Schools Broken Up in the Free States”
2.1. Hiram Huntington Kellogg
2.2. Joanna Turpin Howard
2.3. Serena deGrasse’s painting
3.1. Rosetta Morrison’s school advertisement
4.1. Sarah Parker Remond
4.2. Petition of Eunice Ross
5.1. William Cooper Nell
5.2. Edwin F. Howard
5.3. J. Imogen Howard
5.4. Adeline T. Howard
5.5. Edwin Clarence Howard
6.1. Friendship album of Mary Anne Dickerson
6.2. Charlotte Forten
Introduction: Purposeful Womanhood
In the spring of 1833, twenty young African American women trekked to the Canterbury Female Seminary located in the town of Canterbury, Connecticut. They were overjoyed to partake in this opportunity for advanced schooling.
