Read Part One HERE
In this post I will focus on a woman named Myrtilla Miner. She lived from 1815 - 1864. Myrtilla was born near Brookfield, New York of humble parentage. Though always frail in health, she earned enough by working in the hop fields near her home to further her education. She received a year's training at Clinton in Oneida County, New York under the most adverse circumstances of ill health and lack of funds.
Myrtilla then taught at various school, including the Clover Street Seminary in Rochester, New York and Newton Female Institute in Whitesville, Missisippi. There she learned through horrible experiences the evils of slavery, boldly protesting against the cruelty of the slaveholders.
When she innocently requested permission to teach the slaves of the planters whose daughters she was then tutoring, she was told that teaching slaves was a crime in Mississippi. That experience awakened in Myrtilla a determination to return to the North and found a school for girls of colour.
Read Part One Hundred And Thirty-Eight HERE
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