Celebrate Black History

Susan Ann Baker was born on August 6, 1848 in Liberty County, GA. She was born into slavery and spent the first seven years of her life on a plantation in her home town.

At the age of seven, she was sent to live with her grandmother, Dolly Reed, in Savannah, GA. While there, she and her brother would take a risky trip to a secret schoolhouse for run-away slaves. This was illegal since the formal education of African-Americans was forbidden at the time.

By the age of 14, she knew very well how to read and write, which would come into play when she was sent by military boat to a Union Camp off the Georgia coast. While on the boat, she spoke with the captain and accepted a position at a school on Still Simon's Island where she would teach illiterate children and adults how to read and write.

While there, she met Sergeant Edward King, whom she soon fell in love with and married. Soon after, King's unit was transferred to Port Royal, SC. Despite only being a laundress, she did so much more. She worked as a postmistress for illiterate individuals and even learned how to handle guns.

Later in life, she became a nurse and helped countless soldiers during the Civil War. During her nursing career, she would often travel to Beaumont, SC to visit the first Regimental hospital for black soldiers. After her service, she opened a school in Savannah, GA, and later, opened one in her home town of Liberty County. She also joined and became President of the Women's Relief Corps to continue her nursing career at the same time.

In 1879, 13 years after the death of her first husband, she married Russel Taylor.

In 1902, she published her autobiography, Reminiscence of My Life In Camp: A Black Woman's Civil War Memoir. She was the first and only African-American woman to write a memoir describing her experience during the war.

On October 6, 1912, ten years after the book was published, Taylor passed away and was buried in Roslindale, Massachusetts.

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