Sunday, September 14, 2025

Margaret Crittenden Douglass from Virginia taught free black children to read before the American Civil War

What a great lady! Bravo! I believe, she was not the only person living in the Confederate states to teach free black children.

"Margaret Crittenden Douglass (born c. 1822; year of death unknown) was a Southern white woman who served one month in jail in 1854 for teaching free black children to read in Norfolk, Virginia
Refusing to hire a defense attorney, she defended herself in court and later published a book about her experiences. The case drew public attention to the highly restrictive laws against black literacy in the pre-Civil War American South. ..."

Margaret Crittendon Douglass - Wikipedia







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