Between 1863 and 1871, Harriet M. Buss of Sterling, Massachusetts, taught former slaves in three different regions of the South, in coastal South Carolina, Norfolk, Virginia, and Raleigh, North Carolina. A white, educated Baptist woman, she initially saw herself as on a mission to the freedpeople of the Confederacy but over time developed a shared mission with her students and devoted herself to training the next generation of Black teachers.
The geographical and chronological reach of her letters is uncommon for a woman in the Civil War era. In each place she worked, she taught in a different type of school and engaged with different types of students, so the subjects she explored in her letters illuminate a remarkably broad history of race and religion in America. Her experiences also offer an inside perspective of the founding of Shaw University, an important historically Black university. Now available to specialists and general readers alike for the first time, her correspondence offers an extensive view of the Civil War and Reconstruction era rarely captured in a single collection.
A Nation Divided: Studies in the Civil War Era
Table of Content
List of Illustrations
Foreword by Hilary Green
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Note on Method
Abbreviations
1. Beaufort, South Carolina, 1863
2. Hilton Head, South Carolina, 1863-1864
3. Massachusetts, 1864-1868
4. Norfolk, Virginia, 1868-1869
5. Raleigh, North Carolina, 1869-1870
6. Raleigh, North Carolina, 1870-1871
Epilogue
Notes
Index
About the author
Jonathan W. White is Associate Professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University and author and editor of twelve books, including Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep, and Dreams during the Civil War. Lydia J. Davis is a history educator at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia..
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