Susie King Taylor – First Black Army Nurse of the American Civil War (1848-1912)

As part of our blog series about women medical pioneers, meet Susie King Taylor, the first black army nurse of the American Civil War.

Born a slave, Susie King Taylor became a teacher, a nurse, and President of the Women’s Relief Corps.

Susie King Taylor was born into Slavery on a large plantation in Georgia in 1848. When she was 7 years old, her owner granted permission for Susie to live with her grandmother, Dolly Reed.

At that time, it was illegal to educate African Americans in Georgia. Dolly, however, believed passionately in the importance of education and sent Susie to a secret school run by a friend of hers, a free woman of colour named Mrs Woodhouse.

Susie and her classmates had to wrap their books in paper to prevent police seeing them. They entered and left the schoolhouse one by one to avoid arousing suspicion among neighbours.

In 1862, during The American Civil War, Susie’s grandmother was arrested for singing freedom hymns at a church meeting. Her uncle took her to St. Simon’s, one of the South Carolina Sea Islands, to seek safety. Hundreds of other formerly enslaved refugees also fled and settled on the Islands.

Susie had flourished in her secret school and was very capable of reading and writing. The officers recognised her abilities and asked if she would use her skills to educate both children and adults. Thus, at the age of 14, Susie King Taylor founded the first free African American school, where she taught over 40 children during the day, and numerous adults at night.

Later that same year, Susie met and married Edward King, a black officer in the 33rd United Stated Coloured Infantry Regiment. Eager to be of service, she began volunteering as a laundress for his regiment. She and her husband also spent many hours teaching the soldiers to read and write.

Susie had a natural aptitude to care for the sick and wounded and was soon asked to serve as a nurse. She looked after many patients, including smallpox sufferers, having been vaccinated herself. Thus, she became the first Black Army Nurse of the American Civil War.

Susie King Taylor wrote in her memoirs, “I gave my service willingly for four years and three months without receiving a dollar,” adding that she was glad “to be allowed to go with the regiment, to care for the sick and afflicted comrades.”

In 1866, at the end of the War, Susie and Edward moved to Savannah, where Susie opened a school for African American children. Edward died in a docking accident a few months before their first child was born. And sadly, Susie’s school had to close due to financial pressures.

She took on a job as a domestic servant for a wealthy family and moved with them to Boston. There, she met her second husband, Russell Taylor and began to serve with the Women’s Relief Corps. This organisation’s primary purpose was to provide housing and aid to destitute or ill female nurses from the American Civil War. In 1893, she became president of this association.

More than 620,000 men were killed in the American Civil War between 12 April 1861 and 9 April 1865. After the war was over, slavery in the United States was abolished, all citizens were granted “equal protection under the law” and black men were given the right to vote. However, black women would have to wait another 100 years to be given the same privilege.