Susie King Taylor: The First Black Army Nurse In U.S. History
Library of CongressSusie King Taylor was an educator and nurse, celebrated as the first Black army nurse in U.S. history.
Susie King Taylor accomplished a number of historic firsts before she was even 18 years old.
Her life story begins in the Deep South, where she was born into slavery as Susan Ann Baker on August 6, 1848. She spent her childhood on the Great Plantation in Liberty County, Georgia. She was later sent to live with her grandmother, Dolly, in Savannah when she was seven.
At the time, it was illegal for an enslaved Black child, like Susie King Taylor, to learn how to read and write. But her grandmother fought for her right to an education, enrolling her in secret schools taught by free Black women.
When the Civil War broke out, Taylor and her family found safe passage to St. Simons Island, a secluded piece of land off the coast of Georgia. Taylor’s bright and precocious mind impressed everyone aboard the USS Potomska — especially Commander Lieutenant Pendleton G. Watmough.
He made sure that the young Black girl had a job upon their arrival to the island. Susie King Taylor was tasked with teaching the illiterate Black children and adults who sought refuge at St. Simons Island. She taught about 40 kids during the day, then switched to teaching the adults at night.
At the age of 14, she was the first African American known to teach at a freedman’s school in Georgia.
When the island was evacuated later that year, Taylor moved to Beaufort, South Carolina, where she tended to the all-Black 1st South Carolina Volunteers Infantry Regiment (later renamed the 33rd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment) at Camp Saxton.
As fate would have it, Taylor met her husband Sergeant Edward King among the troops. The couple married and Susie King Taylor stayed with her husband and the regiment until the end of the war.
Although her role with the unit was officially written down as “laundress,” she did more than cook and clean. She also worked on weapons maintenance, educated the soldiers, and tended to their physical injuries.
“I taught a great many of the comrades in Company E to read and write when they were off duty. Nearly all were anxious to learn…I was very happy to know my efforts were successful in camp, and also felt grateful for the appreciation of my services.”
The all-Black unit was joined by other Black women, including abolitionist Harriet Tubman. It’s unclear, however, whether Taylor and Tubman knew each other.
Library of CongressHer 1902 memoir Reminiscences of My Life in Camp was an important historical document that shed light on the untold contributions of Black Americans during the war.
Susie King Taylor’s experience in the war deeply motivated her to continue her work as a nurse, establishing her as the first known Black army nurse in U.S. history.
After the war, Taylor was forced to take on domestic work after the tragic death of her husband. Yet she was still active as a health worker, later organizing Corps 67 of the Women’s Relief Core — a national organization for female Civil War veterans — which supported a new group for Union Army veterans.
She later relocated to Boston where she found a largely progressive community and documented her extraordinary life in her 1902 memoir Reminiscences of My Life in Camp.
The publication of the book, which details her life story along with her profound experiences serving as a nurse during the Civil War, was not only significant in highlighting Taylor’s own contributions in the war, but it also brought the ignored service of Black men and women who fought in the battles to the public.
She died ten years later in 1912 without her contributions acknowledged. Although more than a century late, the recognition for her service as a Black hero has recently begun.
In 2019, the Georgia Historical Society erected a historical marker for Susie King Taylor near the Midway First Presbyterian Church, and the Library of Congress created an exhaustive interactive online biography based on the passages from her historic memoir.
