Susan Paul

Susan Paul (1809–1841) was a primary school teacher, one of the first African American members of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society in Boston, Massachusetts, and the creator and director of the abolitionist Juvenile Choir of Boston. 

Made up of some 30 of her African American students aged three to 10, the choir sang patriotic and anti-slavery songs at packed concerts and anti-slavery events in Boston, drawing rave reviews. By teaching her students songs about slavery – as well as about racial prejudice – Paul ensured that young African American voices were literally heard at a time when many White activists presumed to speak for African Americans. Her students also learned about Northern abolitionism, fostering interest and participation of young African Americans in the movement. 

Paul also wrote the first biography of an African American published in the U.S. The Memoir of James Jackson tells the story of one of her star students who died one month before his seventh birthday. Her portrayal of the boy’s devout Christian sensibility, idealism, and racial awareness offers a rare glimpse into the life of an African American child in a free Black community in the North before the Civil War. 

Susan Paul was the youngest daughter of Catherine Waterhouse Paul, a teacher, and the Reverend Thomas Paul who was a prominent abolitionist, evangelical minister, and co-founder of the First African Baptist Church on Belknap Street (now Joy Street) on Beacon Hill in Boston. The building was financed entirely by African Americans and came to be known as the African Meeting House.

Image above: "Memoir of James Jackson" cover. Source: Public domain