Edmonia Highgate

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Edmonia Highgate to Rev. M. E. Strieby, Feb. 13, 1865
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. M. E. Strieby, Feb. 8, 1866
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. M. E. Strieby, Jan. 23, 1865
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. M. E. Strieby, Jan. 27, 1865
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. M. E. Strieby, Jan. 30, 1868
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. M. E. Strieby, Mar. 10, 1865
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. M. E. Strieby, May 11, 1870
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. M. E. Strieby, May 19, 1864
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. M. E. Strieby, Nov. 21, 1864
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. M. E. Strieby, Nov. 7, 1864
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. M. E. Strieby, Oct. 26, 1864
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, Apr. 27, 1870
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, Feb. 17, 1864
Edmonia Highgate to Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, Jan. 30, 1864
Edmonia Highgate to William E. Whiting, Aug. 11, 1870
Edmonia Highgate to William E. Whiting, Jan. 18, 1865
Edmonia Highgate to William E. Whiting, Mar. 13, 1865
Edmonia Highgate to William E. Whiting, Mar. 31, 1865
Edmonia Highgate to William E. Whiting, May 2, 1870
Edmonia Highgate to William E. Whiting, Nov. 23, 1869
"Colored School Exhibition," The Christian Recorder, July 6, 1867, p. 1
"Editorial Items," The Christian Recorder, Mar. 9, 1867, p. 2
"National Convention of Colored Men in America," The Christian Recorder, Oct. 15, 1864, p. 2
"Our Norfolk Correspondence, The Christian Recorder, Oct. 8, 1864, p. 1
Hannah Highgate to Rev. George Whipple, Apr. 23, 1864
Name
Edmonia Highgate
Biographical Information
Edmonia Highgate was an African American woman born in Syracuse, New York, in 1844. She was the daughter of Hannah Highgate and the sister of Willella Highgate, both of whom would also teach at Darlington. Before the Civil War her family was involved in the abolition movement. In October, 1864, Edmonia was invited to speak at the Colored Men’s Convention at Syracuse, which was attended by Frederick Douglass. After teaching at schools in Pennsylvania, New York (where she was a school principal), and Virginia, Edmonia came to Darlington in the spring of 1865, supported by the American Missionary Association. As no school building yet existed at Darlington, she taught her students at the Hosanna African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. In an 1864 letter to the American Missionary Association in which she first expressed her desire to teach in the South, she described herself as:

“[A]bout twenty years of age and strong and healthy. I know just what self-denial, self-discipline and domestic qualifications are needed for the work and modestly trust that with God's help I could labor advantageously in the field for my newly freed brethren...”

Edmonia Highgate taught only about one month at Darlington before she resigned in favor of teaching farther south, where she felt her talents would be better utilized. The American Missionary Association assigned her to a school in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was succeeded as teacher at Darlington by her mother, Hannah Highgate. During the racially motivated New Orleans Massacre of 1866 Edmonia helped care for those wounded. Afterward she moved to Enterprise, Mississippi, where she raised funds for the American Missionary Association. Edmonia Highgate died under mysterious circumstances in New York City in 1870.
School Affiliation
Darlington aka Hosanna or Berkley

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