Before Rosa Parks: Susie King Taylor

Objectives

• Students will read excerpts from an autobiographical work and retell scenes from the book.
• Students will consider the ways Susie King Taylor's autobiography displays character traits including courage, creativity, compassion and determination.
• Students will collaborate to convert segments of the text into dialogue, creating a brief play about Susie King Taylor's involvement in the Civil War.

Rationale
Susie King Taylor [1] is the only black woman who wrote a narrative about her experiences working with soldiers during the Civil War. While many black women provided food and shelter to Union soldiers, some endangering their lives to do so, only Taylor's story remains.

Although she was officially hired as a "laundress," Taylor also nursed the sick and wounded. She recounts caring for smallpox patients, declaring that her blood was strong from sassafras tea so she didn't contract the deadly disease. She also met Clara Barton at an army hospital and commented on her bravery and skill. Of course, Taylor was performing the same work as she cared for and traveled with the first black regiment in the U.S. Army.

You can read all of Taylor's 1902 book, Reminiscences of my life in camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops late 1st S.C. Volunteers [2], online at the New York Public Library.

Process

• Explain to students that they are going to read and write a play about Susie King Taylor, a girl born into slavery who helped the Union army win the Civil War.
• Write the words from the lesson that the students might not be familiar with on the board: rebel, custard, regiment, commissary, furlough, devotions.
• If possible, display a map of Charleston as you ask what students know about the Civil War.
• Read the summary of Taylor's life from the handout [3] to the class, or ask students to read it aloud.
• Assign students to groups of four or five. Each group will have a segment of Taylor's story. They should read it aloud to one another, then discuss the characters and events. Each group will write a short scene about their excerpt.
• If time permits, allow students to perform their sections in sequence for the whole class.
• You might also do a "First, next, then and finally" summary putting into context the events relayed in the excerpts. Example: First, Taylor was a slave. Next, the Civil War began and she helped the Union fight for her freedom. Then, the U.S. Army decided to pay black soldiers equally. Finally, the "rebels" retreated, and Taylor helped put out the fire in Charleston at the war's end.

This activity meets curriculum standards in Language Arts and U.S. History as outlined by Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education, 4th Edition. [4]

(Sept. 2007)