Addy's Epilogue (Patreon)

Though they had jumped the broom twenty years prior, Ruth and Ben Walker legalized their marriage at Trinity A.M.E. church on January 28th, 1866. With M’dear and Miss Dunn’s help, Addy made them a quilt as a wedding present*.

The Walkers had wanted to move out of the Golden’s boarding house shortly thereafter, but their plans changed when Miss Dunn recommended Addy for Philadelphia’s Institute for Colored Youth**. The cost of tuition was high, but the family agreed that it was well worth it. Harriet Davis was also chosen, and the girls began attending the I.C.Y. the following year, when the school moved to a new location that could accommodate twice as many students. Ever since the church fair, Addy and Harriet had developed an uneasy truce. They got on each other’s nerves constantly, but had their laughs as well. Most importantly, their continued rivalry ensured that they studied hard.

After graduating, both girls took jobs as teachers in Philadelphia. Harriet married after a couple of years and quit, as her husband was a successful businessman who was able to support her in the manner she had been accustomed to growing up. Addy kept on teaching. She took a position at Sixth Street School, where Miss Dunn had recently left. Inspired by her former teacher, Addy treated her students with compassion, giving encouragement to those who were just learning how to read, and maintaining peace so that no one could get away with acting superior to their classmates. In 1880 Addy got married and started a family. For her wedding, Addy decided that old traditions were just as important as new, and everyone cheered as she jumped the broom during her church ceremony. She had a boy and a girl, whom she named Solomon and Lula.

Sarah Moore did go back to school, but still had to miss a day here and there to help her parents take in laundry. True to her word, Addy helped Sarah study so that she never got too far behind. As they entered the 1870s, things improved for the Moore family. Mrs. Ford's dress shop was doing so well that the business expanded, and the first new hire was Sarah's momma, Mabel. With this steady income, Sarah was able to focus on running errands and making deliveries, all the while practicing her sewing so that she could join the seamstresses as she got older. Sarah and Addy remained best friends for life.

Sam's career options were slightly limited due to his missing arm, but with his quick wit he was determined to do well for himself. Addy helped him learn to read and he took night classes, saving up money so that he could attend Howard University in Washington, D.C. Sam became a lawyer and used his connections to champion for the rights of black people in Philadelphia.

Esther always looked up to her big sister and attended grammar and high school at the I.C.Y. However, she didn't want to be a teacher. Instead, Esther decided to become a nurse. After graduating from the I.C.Y., she moved to Boston and enrolled in the nursing school at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. It was a very rigorous program and few who entered it graduated, but Esther was as determined as her older siblings. After sixteen months of lectures and clinicals, Esther became a professionally licensed nurse.

The years following the Civil War were known as "Reconstruction," as the nation worked to reunify and bring the Southern states back into the fold. This was no easy task, as the North and South had such different ways of life that they were bound to clash, as had led them to war in the first place. Voting rights were expanded at a national level, but states found loopholes to restrict them locally. Slavery was replaced with sharecropping, a form of serfdom that kept many families, black and white, in poverty. Despite its many downfalls, Reconstruction did succeed in expanding education in the South. Prior to the Civil War, North Carolina was the only Southern state that provided public education to white children. After the war, public schools were established in all states for all races, though more often than not these schools were segregated.

*"Addy's Wedding Quilt."

**"High Hopes for Addy."

Read more about the Institute for Colored Youth and its legacy here.

Read about Mary Mahoney, the first professionally licensed black nurse in the U.S. here.