Sarah Jane Foster faced harassment for teaching newly freed people in Martinsburg. Foster had to move to Harpers Ferry to teach at Storer Normal School.
Image courtesy of Library of Congress
I am in love with my work
Sarah Jane Foster, a 19th century educator at Storer Normal School. Born and raised in a religious and anti-slavery household in Gray, Maine, Sarah Jane started her teaching career in the fall of 1865 with the Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The twenty-six-year-old taught a class of nearly fifty formerly enslaved students before she transferred to Storer Normal School in Harpers Ferry on April 1, 1866. She remarked on her new surroundings in Harpers Ferry: “[the] wild scenery here suits and charms me. I am often reminded of the remark of one of my adult pupils. He said: ‘Harpers Ferry’s the last place that ever was made, and it wasn’t finished.’” As an early teacher at Storer Normal School, Sarah Jane taught reading, writing, spelling and basic mathematics to a growing student body thirsty for knowledge and equality. She was also a writer and regularly submitted articles of her teaching experiences for publication in The Zion Advocate, a Portland, Maine-based Baptist missionary newspaper. She also kept a diary of her daily teaching experiences in Harpers Ferry. On May 22, 1866, she wrote, “I had twenty – nine in school today. I have reduced my alphabet class by five or six. If they all had books now they’d get on finely. Have felt encouraged by the very rapid progress of some little ones.” By 1867, Sarah Jane Foster accepted a teaching position with the American Missionary Association at a freedmen’s school on the outskirts of Charleston, South Carolina. Sadly, her teaching career ended abruptly when she contracted yellow fever. She died on June 25, 1868, shortly after returning home to Maine. Sarah Jane Foster’s time at Storer was short but she certainly impacted her students. Like many early Storer teachers, she strived to make positive change in her world. She summed it up best when she wrote in her diary, “I am in love with my work.”
Last updated: May 8, 2023
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Contact Info
Mailing Address:
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
National Park Service
PO Box 65
Harpers Ferry,
WV
25425
