“T” is for Towne, Laura Matilda (1825-1901). Educator. Towne was a native of Pennsylvania where she became involved in the abolitionist movement. When the Civil War commenced, she was a schoolteacher. In December 1861 Federal military authorities called for physicians and teachers to volunteer and provide vital aid for thousands of former enslaved persons in the South Carolina Sea Islands. She volunteered and was the official representative of the Port Royal Relief Committee of Philadelphia. Towne founded Penn School in 1862 that was the first facility providing African Americans with a secondary education. Eventually it served as a normal school, training Black teachers to serve throughout South Carolina. During her forty years of residency on the Sea Islands, Laura Matilda Towne became conversant in Gullah and was a perceptive observer of African American folk culture.
“T” is for Towne, Laura Matilda (1825-1901). Educator.
