History Behind the Story: Laura Towne

Laura Towne with Her Students; New York Public Library

I modeled the character on Mattie Easton on Laura Towne, making it a thinly veiled portrait, because I admire Laura Towne so much. Like all of the teachers who went south to the Sea islands, she was an advocate of abolition. Unusually, she had also received a medical education. When she arrived in the Sea Islands in April of 1862, she had no idea that educating former slaves would become her life’s work, and that St. Helena Island would become her home.

Her school on the Frogmore plantation would become the Penn School, and she would dedicate her life to teaching, practicing medicine, and advising the former slaves on legal matters. She never married and was accompanied lifelong by her companion Ellen Murray, who also taught at Frogmore.

My favorite image of her shows her surrounded by her students, the best legacy she could possibly have.