Freedman's teachers were mostly women social reformers from the North who, according to the article "promoted thought and establish[ed] discipline." They provided both academic and vocational training. In addition to their academic duties, teachers often provided their students with basic needs, such as food and clothing. Despite the challenges, they proclaimed to have loved their work.

Mary Smith Peake - Mary was the first African American teacher hired by the American Missionary Association. According to nationalparkservice.com, she taught "contrabands" how to read and write in a community near Fort Monroe. Mary was born free in Norfolk, Virginia. She taught other African Americans to read, which was, at the time, against the law. She married Thomas Peake and eventually succumbed to TB in 1862.

Francis Ellen Watkins Harper - According to the National Women's History Museum, Francis was a poet, author, and lecturer. In addition, she was an abolitionist, suffragist, and reformer who founded the National Association of colored Women's Clubs. At age 26, she became the first woman instructor at Union Seminary, a school for fear African Americans. She married Fenton Harper in 1860--the two had a daughter named Mary. Francis spent the rest of her life advocating for equal rights until she died in 1911.

Charlotte Forten - According to PBS Online: Only a Teacher: Schoolhouse Pioneers, Charlotte was the first Northern African American schoolteacher to go to the South to teach former slaves. She is best remembered for her diaries which chronicled her work which was devoted to promoting social justice. Charlotte died in 1914.

What happened to the Freedman's Schools in the...

1870s - At first, the Freedman's Bureau provided the schools with necessities like food and clothing. They set up hospitals and temporary housing for freed African Americans. They also arranged for freed men to work with plantation owners. Eventually, old biases and racist attitudes forced the closure of the Bureau.

1880s - There was growing resistance by whites, many of whom were uneducated, that educating African Americans would distract them from working and empower them. Funding for the schools waned and it was difficult to find quality teachers. Teachers who served, were often issued death threats and relied on the freedman's Bureau and the U.S. Army for protection.

1890s - Many local school districts across the South refused to fund African American schools. African American teachers received lower salaries than whites. School infastructures were not maintained. Assistance from the federal government dried up, resulting in widespread closures.