Sarah Jane Woodson Early | |
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| Born | November 15, 1825 Ross County, Ohio, US |
| Died | August 15, 1907 (aged 82) |
| Education | Oberlin College, 1852 |
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Sarah Jane Woodson Early, born Sarah Jane Woodson (November 15, 1825 – August 1907), was an American educator, black nationalist, temperance activist and author. A graduate of Oberlin College, where she majored in classics, she was hired at Wilberforce University in 1858 as the first black woman college instructor, and also the first black American to teach at a historically black college or university (HBCU).[1]
She also taught for many years in community schools. After marrying in 1868 and moving to Tennessee with her minister husband Jordan Winston Early, she was principal of schools in four cities. Early served as national superintendent (1888–1892) of the black division of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and gave more than 100 lectures across five states. She wrote a biography of her husband and his rise from slavery that is included among post-Civil War slave narratives.
- ^ She was not, however, the first black person to teach at the college level. Three black American men taught at Central New York College prior to the Civil War, including George B. Vashon, a graduate of Oberlin College. The school was established by Gerit Smith and went out of operation just before the Civil War began. Wilberforce University, where Woodson taught continues in operation (as of 2018). Benjamin Quarles, Black Abolitionists, New York/London: Oxford University Press, 1969.