"Charlotte Forten"

As March leaves signaling the end of another Women's Month, it comes to mind the numerous sisters that have stood up for empowerment and equality. We tend to remember the orators, activists, and "warrioresses," but many times we do not recall the educators.

Charlotte Forten was the first Black teacher of Penn Normal and Agricultural School. This was the first trade and agricultural school for "freedmen"(African people who were released from enslavement in the United States after the Civil War). Charlotte was the granddaughter of James Forten who was an abolitionist that passed his fervor against slavery down to his son, Robert Bridges Forten.

Charlotte's mother died while she was a child. He father, Robert sent her to Byberry outside Philadelphia to live with Robert Purvis and his wife Harriet (Charlotte's aunt). there she was educated by private tutors because she was not allowed to attend Philadelphia's white schools. Later she moved to Salem, MA where she lived with another abolitionist, Charles Lenox Redmond and she attended grade school.

After high school, Charlotte began teaching in the Salem school system while she continued her own studies. However, due to illness, she retired in 1857 at age 20. Yet, in August of 1862 during a visit to Boston, she was encouraged to apply for a job as a teacher with the recently organized Boston Port Royal Educational Commission. This like many other commissions was formed to provide assistance to freedmen.

When the Boston Port Royal Educational Commission did not contact her after several months, Charlotte applied to the Philadelphia Commission. she was accepted and headed to Port Royal on October 27, 1862. Upon arrival, Charlotte was not immediately embraced by the Gullah/Geechee Sea Islanders. They did not relate to her style and ways nor did she to them and theirs. Although they were all Black there was a culture clash.

Charlotte Forten wrote in here diary that the local people had a "barbaric" way of worship because she had never seen or experienced "shouting." The longer Charlotte stayed in the in the islands teaching reading, writing (which had been banned by the Slave Code of 1790) , arithmetic, the more the Gullah folks taught her about spirituality from an African perspective and about their lifestyle that was based in praise of a Higher Being.

Charlotte eventually was no longer simply looked at as a "stuck up" (i.e. "sidity" in Gullah) Black woman. She became a part of the community and was sadly missed when she had to leave the island in the latter part of May in 1864 aboard "The Fulton." She arrived in New York on June 3, 1864 very ill and in need of rest.

Charlotte continued to do some teaching and a great deal of writing. She married Reverend Francis Grimke; on December 9, 1878. Their only child died in 1880. When Charlotte Forten passed away in 1914, she did not pass from the pages of history. Even though she grew up in a "privileged" fashion, she always wanted to do things for her people. Thus, in Philadelphia and in Port Royal she fought for freedom, education, equality of African people in America.

Charlotte's spirit can be felt "shouting" with those of many Sea Island ancestors when one stands and reads the placard in her honor outside Penn Center Inc.'s Cope Building on St. Helena Island. This is right across the street from Brick Baptist Church where Charlotte taught the three r's and learn about being "in the Spirit."

This woman's month we salute the spirit of pride that was housed within Charlotte Forten and the many other sisters that worked for the upliftment of African/African American people.

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Marquetta L. Goodwine is a historian and author who specializes in the Underground Railroad and the Sea Islands, home to Gullah and Geechee culture. She is the founder of the Afrikan Kultural Arts Network and the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition. You can reach her at QueenMut@aol.com on line or AKAN PO Box 40-0199 Brooklyn NY 11240-0199 offline. She welcomes comments. In the meantime, check out more on her work and that of AKAN at http://users.aol.com./queenmut/Afrikan_Network.html

Reprinting of this piece in any form is not to be done without express permission from Ms. Goodwine who retains all rights.

©1997 Marquetta L. Goodwine