Edmonia Highgate

Joining the American Missionary Association

Teachers of the American Missionary Association at Slater Training School in Knoxville, Tennessee.

After completing her education, Highgate left home to join the American Missionary Association (AMA). The AMA was a Protestant abolitionist group founded in New York in 1846. Their ultimate mission was to promote racial equality, the abolishment of slavery, education of African Americans, and Christianity. As a teacher for the organization, she traveled to Mississippi in 1868 and other states throughout the South such as Virginia, Maryland, and Louisiana.

Teaching the Freedmen

A class photo of students at the Hosanna School Museum.

In 1865, Edmonia G. Highgate briefly stayed in Harford County, Maryland where she taught her first class in the Hosanna AME Church building. The Hosanna School was established soon after in 1867 as the first of the four Freedmen’s Bureau schoolhouses in the county. The property was originally owned by a free African American man named Cupid Paca who bought the 50 acres of land it was built on in 1822. Today, the history of the institution is preserved at the Hosanna School Museum.

A Legacy of Educational Freedom

National Convention of Colored People, Nashville, Tennessee

Edmonia G. Highgate advocated for education outside the classroom. She organized the Louisiana Educational Relief Association for Black children. She also wrote about her experiences as an educator in several newspapers, including the Christian Recorder.

As one of the few Black women at local and national Colored Conventions, Highgate gave unifying and devout speeches on faith, freedom, and equal rights in education. Although Highgate largely went unrecognized for her contributions, she continued to fight for the right to learn until her untimely death in 1870 at age 26.