Letters from a Planter's Daughter: Understanding Freedom and ...

Susanna’s mother Celia was gone—she died in childbirth—along with an
infant boy who may have been Samuel Townsend’s son, between 1856
and 1858. 52 Susanna may not have remembered her, but family history
would have been no secret, and the women who raised her were very probably
Celia’s successors and predecessors—others of Samuel’s mistresses.
Susanna may have found their joy in freedom from sexual enslavement
infectious; and she may have kept in the back of her mind a knowledge of
how even in bondage Elvira exerted what little influence she had on the
writing of Samuel’s will.
One of the experiences that most shaped the early years of her freedom,
however, would have been her two years at Wilberforce University.
Susanna and the six half-siblings who came with her to Wilberforce would
have been some of the earliest students to study at the university, though
not unusual in their history—the student body overwhelmingly comprised
the biological children of southern white planters and enslaved women. 53
Education of students only effectively started in 1858, with the appointment
of Richard S. Rust, who administered Wilberforce through 1863.
Rust was assisted by one James K. Parker, director of the “Normal and
Preparatory Department”—and both of these men would have regular interaction
with the Townsend children, Susanna in particular, for the next
decade. 54
Wilberforce “University” provided elementary-level education for
the Townsends, and what information we have about their sojourn there
comes from the letters of Samuel’s second-eldest son, Willis. By March of
1860, twenty-year-old Willis wrote that “we three Large ones”—meaning
himself, nineteen-year-old Thomas, and seventeen-year-old Osborne—
could already read the Bible well; “the Girls,” however, were “not geting
on verry fast in there study.” 55 Parthenia had been sick for months—a valid
excuse for distraction from academics—but Willis’s letter would indicate
that Susanna and Milcha were simply slower than the others. 56 Possibly,
Willis simply did not pay much attention to the younger girls. Susanna
was, after all, more than thirteen years his junior. Parthenia may merit a
mention in Willis’s letters because she was his full sister, and regular up-
52 Will of Samuel Townsend, dated 6 September 1856.
53 David A. Gerber, Black Ohio and the Color Line 1860-1915 (Urbana, Illinois: University
of Illinois Press, 1976), 19.
54 Ibid, 35.
55 Letter from Willis Townsend to S.D. Cabaniss, dated 12 March 1860.
56 Ibid.
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Letters from a Planter’s Daughter