Emily Harvie Thomas Tubman

Emily Harvie Thomas Tubman (born March 21, 1794 in Ashland (Virginia) , † June 9, 1885 ) was an American philanthropist . She was the founder of the first public high school for girls in Augusta, Georgia.

life and work

Thomas Tubman was born Emily Harvie Thomas to Edmund Thomas and Anne Thomas. In 1798 her family moved to Kentucky and she spent much of her childhood in Frankfort, Kentucky . In 1804 her father died and a friend of the family Henry Clay became her legal guardian. In 1818 she moved to Augusta and married Richard Tubman, an Englishman from Maryland with extensive estates in Georgia. Her husband died in 1836 and she was responsible for the large property and the extensive land. Her brother, lawyer Landon Thomas, helped her acquire knowledge of business and law, so that she more than doubled the legacy.

Administration of Richard Tubman's estate

The University of Georgia was to receive a gift of US $ 10,000 from the estate on condition that Georgia lawmakers allowed the release of Richard Tubman's slaves. However, since the legislature refused to allow this, the gift was not given. Thomas Tubman sought advice from her friend and mentor, Henry Clay, who was president of the American Colonization Society. This society was founded to find suitable places in Africa where ex-slaves could live safely. She offered her husband's 144 slaves to pay for their passage to Liberia or they could stay with her. If they stayed, individual parcels would be built for them and wages would be paid for farming. 69 accepted the offer for a passage and she paid the $ 6,000 cost. A town in Maryland County , Liberia , was named Tubman in her honor. A grandson of two of her former slaves, William Tubman , was Liberia's 19th President from 1944 to 1971.

Activity in the church sector

In 1828 she was baptized in the Kentucky River by the Baptist minister Silas M. Noel, who was a bitter enemy of the Christian movement. However, she did not join the Baptist Church or the Episcopal Church. Impressed by Alexander Campbell's views and vision of a New Testament Church, she became a founding member of the First Christian Church of Augusta and was a summer member of the First Christian Church in Frankfort. It provided funds to build numerous Christian churches in Georgia, including Augusta, Atlanta , Athens, Georgia , Savannah, Georgia, and Sandersville . She not only paid for the buildings, but also paid the pastors' salaries when these new churches were started.

Social projects

She helped set up and equip Christian universities and founded a public high school for girls in 1874: today's Tubman Middle School in Augusta. She built cheap apartments for the soldiers' widows who were destitute after the civil war. Shortly before her death, she made a gift of $ 30,000 to the Foreign Christian Missionary Society.

She was a shareholder in the Georgia Railroad and provided free transportation for Confederate soldiers. She assisted the restoration of Mount Vernon , Virginia, and was the majority shareholder in John Pendleton King's manufacturing company .

Honors

In 1994 she was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement , and the city of Augusta unveiled a statue of her near the First Christian Church.

literature

• Williams, David Salter: From Mounds to Megachurches: Georgia's Religious Heritage. University of Georgia Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8203-3638-1 .
• Mark Douglas Woodard: The Life of Emily Harvie Thomas Tubman: A Prodigious Entrepreneur and Philanthropist, 2016, ISBN 978-1530525287 .
• James M. Gifford: Emily Tubman and the African Colonization Movement in Georgia, Georgia Historical Society, 1975

Web links

• Biography at History of the Restoration Movement
• Biography at Georgia Women
• Biography (English)
• Emily Harvie Thomas Tubman, In: Find A Grave