Mary Watson

Linked resources

Jerome B. Armstrong to Rev. John Kimball, Feb. 1, 1869
Jerome B. Armstrong to Rev. John Kimball, Jan. 5, 1869
Jerome B. Armstrong to Rev. John Kimball, Oct. 23, 1868
Jerome B. Armstrong to Rev. John Kimball, Oct. 29, 1868
Jerome B. Armstrong to Rev. S. P. Smith, Jan. 5, 1869 (misdated 1868)
Jerome B. Armstrong, et al. to Rev. John Kimball, Sept. 20, 1869
Maj. D. G. Swaim to Col. Robert R. Corson, Dec. 14, 1869
Maj. W. L. Van Derlip to Col. Robert R. Corson, Jan 10, 1870, Letter 489
Maj. W. L. Van Derlip to George W. Stickney, Jan. 13, 1870
Maj. W. L. Van Derlip to George W. Stickney, Mar. 16, 1870
Maj. W. L. Van Derlip to Rachel L. Alexander, Dec. 22, 1869
Monthly Report of Schools, Teachers, Societies, Pupils, and Buildings for Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, and D.C., Feb. 28, 1869
Monthly Report of Schools, Teachers, Societies, Pupils, and Buildings for Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, and D.C., Jan. 31, 1869
Rev. Edward P. Smith to Rev. John Kimball, Aug. 5, 1869
Rev. John Kimball to Rev. E. P. Smith, July 12, 1869
Rev. John Kimball to Rev. E. P. Smith, Oct. 27, 1868
Rev. John Kimball to Rev. E. P. Smith, Sept. 17, 1869
Schedule of Schools and Rental Accounts of the Baltimore Association for the Quarter Ending June 30, 1869 for the State of Maryland
Schedule of Schools and Rental Accounts of the Pennsylvania Branch American Freedmen Commission, for the Quarter Ending December 31, 1869 for the State of Maryland
Schedule of Schools of Pennsylvania Branch Freedmen's Union Commission for Quarter Ending June 30, 1870 for Maryland
Sophia L. Little to Louis Tappan, Aug. 26, 1864
Teacher account book entry for Mary Watson, Port Deposit, Nov. 1869 - May 1870
Maj. W. L. Van Derlip to Mary Watson, June 13, 1870
Maj. W. L. Van Derlip to Mary Watson, May 16, 1870
Maj. W. L. Van Derlip to Mary Watson, May 24, 1870
Name
Mary Watson
Biographical Information
Mary E. Watson (full name Mary Elizabeth Watson) was an African American woman born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1840. She began teaching in her native state soon after graduating from the Rhode Island State Normal School in 1858. At the end of the Civil War, she applied to the American Missionary Association to obtain a teaching position in the South. In a letter to the Association, she stated her reason for wanting to teach in the former slave states.

“My sympathy has always been with the outcast Slave (since the dawn of Emancipation). I feel that God calls me to work for them, to devote my time to those, who have so long been trodden under foot, so long born the heat, and burden of the day; too long been denied”

The AMA first sent Mary to teach at Norfolk, Virginia, in early 1865, before transferring her to Darlington, in Harford County, for the fall term of 1865. There was no dedicated school building at Darlington, so, like her predecessor in this position Edmonia Highgate, she initially taught her students at the Hosanna African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Mary E. Watson proved an able instructor in the classroom and an energetic advocate for her school. Due in part to her efforts, a school building was completed in time for the spring term of 1869.

After completing the spring, 1869 term at Darlington, the increasingly limited resources of the American Missionary Association prevented them from continuing to support Watson there on the same terms as before. Instead, they assigned her to teach at Port Deposit, across the Susquehanna in Cecil County. Unlike Harford County, Cecil County had begun partially supporting its black schools, and their teachers, with local taxes. During the period when Watson’s tenure at Darlington was ending and she was trying to secure another position, the AMA was effusive in their praise for her. “The impression she has made will, as long as life last, remain in her scholars. They love and respect her.” They described her as “a light shining in a dark place.”
School Affiliation
Darlington aka Hosanna or Berkley
Port Deposit, Cecil County

Part of Mary Watson