Susie King Taylor: The Nurse Who Documented Her Experiences in the Civil War

This Civil War nurse supported the Union army and taught fellow African Americans to read and write.

“Emancipation Day in South Carolina,” 1863. Wood engraving. The Color-Sergeant of the 1st South Carolina addressing the regiment, after having been presented with the Stars and Stripes, at Smith's plantation, Port Royal, S.C. on Jan. 1,1863. Library of Congress. Public Domain

After attending a secret school, Susie King Taylor used her knowledge to teach her fellow freed slaves to read and write. Furthermore, she used her skills to help care for the wounded during Civil War battles. Then once the war was over, she wrote the first memoir of its kind to tell her story of bravery.

On Aug. 6, 1848, Taylor was born into slavery on a plantation in Liberty County, Georgia. When she turned 7 years old, Taylor’s owners allowed her to go live with her grandmother Dolly Reed in Savannah, Georgia. Reed was a free African American who did laundry and traded herbal remedies when she traveled between Liberty County and Savannah.