A Black Woman's Civil War Memoir

Subtitled: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops, Late 1st South Carolina Volunteers

By: Susie King Taylor

Hennepin County Library hardcover 152 pages

Published: 1902 (this version 1988)

Genre: memoir, history

I got this book out of curiosity after reading the Civil War quilts book. What an extraordinary woman! She was taught to read and write when she was young (even though black people could and were punished for learning). She worked as a laundress during the war. Her observations and experiences over 150 years ago are a valuable part of our historical record as a nation.

Page 63: "They drove with him to the rear of our camp, where he was shot. I shall never forget this scene."

A deserter who was later accused of being a spy was killed while everyone was out for dress parade. For her to write this after more than forty years had passed . . . I believe it was a very memorable event for her.

Page 63: "Before we got to camp, where the payrolls could be made out, he sickened and died of small-pox, and was buried at Savannah, never having been paid one cent for nearly three years of service."

She's writing about a man named Robert Defoe who had refused the "reduced pay offered by the government." Many black soldiers were either not paid at all or paid at significantly less than what they had been told upon recruitment. 

Page 67: "When at Camp Shaw, I visited the hospital in Beaufort, where I met Clara Barton. There were a number of sick and wounded soldiers there, and I went often to see the comrades. Miss Barton was always very cordial toward me, and I honored her for her devotion and care for those men."

I love that a historical figure (to me) like Clara Barton was someone Taylor met as she did her own part in the war.

Page 68 (endnotes): "Their commander reported, 'I started from Saint Simon's island with sixty-two colored fighting men and returned to Beaufort with 156 fighting men (all colored). As soon as we took a slave from his claimant, we placed a musket in his hand and he began to fight for the freedom of the others."

There are other notes in this part about the efficacy of these soldiers.

"General Saxton was overjoyed at the success of his troops, and wrote to the Secretary of War that 'the Negroes fought with a coolness and bravery that would have done credit to veteran soldiers. There was no excitement, no flinching, no attempt at cruelty when successful. They seemed like men who were fighting to vindicate their manhood, and they did it well.'"

And yet there are people who continue to claim that people with dark skin are inferior to whites. Sometimes humanity saddens me deeply.

Page 87-88: "It seems strange how our aversion to seeing suffering is overcome in war, - how we are able to see the most sickening sights, such as men with their limbs blown off and mangled by the deadly shells, without a shudder; and instead of turning away, how we hurry to assist in alleviating their pain, bind up their wounds, and press the cool water to their parched lips, with feelings only of sympathy and pity."

I love this woman! She just rocked in so many ways. 

Page 120: "I look around now and see the comforts that our younger generation enjoy, and think of the blood that was shed to make these comforts possible for them, and see how little some of them appreciate the old soldiers. My heart burns within me, at this want of appreciation."

Her sentiment makes me wonder what she would think of people today with their entitlement and selfishness. Her writing is eloquent and poignant. Her chapter XIII is called "Thoughts on Present Conditions" and she writes about the injustices still occurring.

Page 135: "In this 'land of the free' we are burned, tortured, and denied a fair trial, murdered for any imaginary wrong conceived in the brain of the negro-hating white man. There is no redress for us from a government which promised to protect all under its flag. It seems a mystery to me."

She was writing this at the turn of the century. I think of students who have told me that the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s "ended" racism. I think of people I know now who are vehemently opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement. But if you look at racial profiling (by police, in education, in housing, . . . ) much of this injustice lives on. Thankfully, we don't see lynchings any more! But the fight for equal rights isn't really over in 2025.