Mary Fields

Mary Fields
Sepia-tone photograph of Mary Fields, holding a rifle
Fields c. 1895
Bornc. 1832
Hickman County, Tennessee, US
DiedDecember 5, 1914(1914-12-05) (aged 81–82)
Great Falls, Montana, US
Occupation(s)Freighter, cook, domestic worker, star route mail carrier
Known forFirst African American woman star route mail carrier in the U.S.

Mary Fields (c. 1832 – December 5, 1914), also known as Stagecoach Mary and Black Mary, was an American mail carrier who was the first Black woman to be employed as a star route postwoman in the United States.[1][2][3][4]

Fields had the star route contract for the delivery of U.S. mail from Cascade, Montana, to Saint Peter's Mission. She drove the route for two four-year contracts, from 1895 to 1899 and from 1899 to 1903. Author Miantae Metcalf McConnell provided documentation discovered during her research about Mary Fields to the United States Postal Service Archives Historian in 2006. This enabled the USPS to establish Mary Fields' contribution as the first African-American female star route mail carrier in the United States.[4]

  1. ^ Shirley, Gayle C. (2011). More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Montana Women (2nd ed.). Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press. ISBN 978-0-7627-6692-5.
  2. ^ Cooper, Gary; Crawford, Marc (October 1959). "Stagecoach Mary". EBONY (Reprinted Oct. 1977 ed.). Johnson Publishing Company. p. 98.
  3. ^ Metcalf McConnell, Miantae (2016). "Mary Fields's Road to Freedom". Black Cowboys in the American West, On the Range, On the Stage, Behind the Badge. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 156. Archived from the original on 2019-09-02. Retrieved 2017-04-26.
  4. ^ a b Metcalf McConnell, Miantae (2016). Deliverance Mary Fields, First African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States: A Montana History. Huzzah Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9978770-0-7. Archived from the original on 2019-09-02. Retrieved 2017-04-26.