October 1862

Charlotte Forten Grimké, a free Black woman from Philadelphia and abolitionist, sailed to the Sea Islands of South Carolina in October 1862 to teach newly freed people under the Port Royal Experiment. She documented her experiences in Atlantic Monthly essays — among the earliest firsthand accounts of Reconstruction-era Black education.

Charlotte Forten Grimké, a free Black woman from Philadelphia and accomplished poet, traveled to St. Helena Island, South Carolina, to teach formerly enslaved people under the Port Royal Experiment. Her detailed journal of this experience, later published, provided one of the most vivid firsthand accounts of Black life and education during the Civil War era.