The Life of Ellen Garrison 

For the entirety of her childhood, Ellen Garrison would call the Robbins House in Concord, Massachusetts home. Her mother, Susan Garrison, was one of the first residents of the house, and Ellen Garrison would return to Concord each summer during her adult life. Having been born in 1823, she grew up during the Antebellum Period, a time that saw a leap in the push for abolition. Her mother and father were very active in the town of Concord throughout her early life, taking part in local activities. Susan was a founding member of the Concord Female Antislavery Society, hosting their second meeting in her home. In fact, Ellen’s engagement in the questions of Civil Rights extended beyond those of African-Americans. Her signature appeared alongside 200 others on a petition protesting the government’s treatment of the Cherokee. She attended Concord’s public schools and earned several awards recognizing her academic prowess2. As an adult, Garrison became a Freedmen’s School teacher in the South as part of the American Missionary Association1.

ANTISLAVERY ACTIVIST
“…Early on, she learned about racial discrimination, and followed in her mother’s footsteps as an antislavery activist. At 12, she marched in a Concord parade hand-in-hand with her white schoolmate ‘beneath the gaze of curiosity, surprise, ridicule and admiration.’ Ellen signed many petitions as a way to make her voice heard.

After the Civil War, Ellen taught newly freed people during Reconstruction. Her application explained, ‘I have a great desire to go and labor among the freedmen of the South. I think it is our duty as a people to spend our lives in trying to elevate our own race. Who can feel for us if we do not feel for ourselves?’

TRUE TO HER CALLING

In the hostility of the post-Reconstruction South, Ellen’s teaching post was defunded. She followed Kansas “Exodusters” in 1879 to again teach newly freed people. After a decade in Kansas as a teacher, Homestead farmer’s wife, and stepmother, Ellen moved with her later family to an egalitarian, antislavery community in Pasadena, California, where she is buried with other antislavery activists.”3

Thank you for educating yourself about Concord’s African-American and anti-slavery history.

Works Cited

1 Concord Museum. “The Letters of Ellen Garrison.” YouTube, YouTube Video, 1 June 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTCUOj3LEo0. Accessed 25 May 2023.

2 “Ellen Garrison Exhibit – the Robbins House.” The Robbins House, 7 Mar. 2019, robbinshouse.org/projects/ellen-garrison-exhibit/. Accessed 25 May 2023.

3 “Ellen Garrison – the Robbins House.” The Robbins House, 12 June 2020, robbinshouse.org/story/ellen-garrison-jackson/. Accessed 26 May 2023.