Susan Nye Hutchison (1790-1867) was one of many teachers to venture
south across the Mason-Dixon Line in the Second Great Awakening.
From 1815 to 1841, she kept journals about her career, family life,
and encounters with slavery. Drawing on these journals and hundreds
of other documents, Kim Tolley uses Hutchison's life to explore the
significance of education in transforming American society in the
early national period. Tolley examines the roles of ambitious,
educated women like Hutchison who became teachers for economic,
spiritual, and professional reasons.
During this era, working women faced significant struggles when
balancing career ambitions with social conventions about female
domesticity. Hutchison's eventual position as head of a respected
southern academy was as close to equity as any woman could achieve
in any field. By recounting Hutchison's experiences--from praying
with slaves and free blacks in the streets of Raleigh and
establishing an independent school in Georgia to defying North
Carolina law by teaching slaves to read--Tolley offers a rich
microhistory of an antebellum teacher. Hutchison's story reveals
broad social and cultural shifts and opens an important window onto
the world of women's work in southern education.