Read Part One HERE
In this post I will focus on a woman named Susan Paul. She lived from 1809 - 1841. Susan was the youngest daughter of Baptist minister Thomas Paul and his wife Catherine Waterhouse Paul. Her father was an outspoken social activist who introduced his daughter to the anti-slavery movement and many of the movement's most prominent leaders, including David Walker and Lydia Maria Child.
Susan was a primary school a teacher and began her abolitionist career in 1833 with the New England Anti-Slavery Society, a group that was significantly more receptive to women than other anti-slavery societies.At that time she was invited to participate in a meeting of that sociey. She did not speak at that meeting but led a group of about 30 African American childdren from her school in song.
That same year, an assembly of men from the New England Anti-Slavery Society, led by William Lloyd Garrison, visited Susan's classroom, and were overwhelmed by the musical performances that Susan's students provided. Known as the Juvenile Choir of Boston, Susans African American students ranged from ages three to ten and sang patriotic and anti-slavery songs. By teaching her students songs about slavery, Susan was able to inform young African American children about Northern abolitionism and expand the African American anti-slavery movement.
After the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society was formed as an auxiliary of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, Susan became one of the first African American members of the group.
In 1837, she was one of two black women delegates at the Anti-Slavery Convention in New York
Susan, together with Jane Putnam and Nancy Prince founded a temperance society in the 1830s.
Unfortunately, Susan died of tuberculosis at the age of 32, in 1841.
Read Part One Hundred And Five HERE
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