Emily Howland was born on 27 November 1827 in Sherwood, Cayuga County, New York, and was the daughter of Slocum Howland and Hannah Talcott, who were prominent in the Society of Friends and operated an Underground Railroad station. Especially known for her activities and interest in the education of African-Americans, she was also a strong supporter of women's rights and the temperance movement.
Howland taught at Normal School for Colored Girls in Washington, D.C., from 1857 to 1859. During the Civil War, she worked at the contraband refugee settlement of Camp Todd in Arlington, Virginia, teaching freed slaves to read and write as well as administering to the sick during a smallpox outbreak and ultimately serving as director of the camp during 1864-1866.
In 1867, she started a community for freed people in Heathsville, Northumberland County, Virginia, called Arcadia, on 400 acres purchased by her father, including a school for the education of children of freed slaves, the Howland Chapel School.
In 1885, Franklyn Howland's work said,
"Emily, b. 20, 11, 1827, in Sherwood, N.Y., where she resided in 1885, on the old homestead. She was much interested in the emancipation and education of the colored race. She taught colored schools in the southern states as soon as possible after the commencement of the Rebellion, and established such as school in Virginia. She is actively interested in all moral reforms. Her pen is a ready one, and the early history of Friends in Cayuga co., N.Y., written by her, is of interest and value. In 1885 she was travelng in Europe with one of her brother William's children.[1]
She became one of the first female bank directors in the U.S. at First National Bank of Aurora in Aurora, New York, in 1890, serving until her death, at age 101. She passed away on 29 June 1929 in Cayuga County, New York.
She was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2021.
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Categories: Quaker Abolitionists | New York Quakers | Quaker Bankers | Educators | Normal School for Colored Girls | Underground Railroad Stations | Heathsville, Virginia | Nurses, United States Civil War | Aurora, Cayuga County, New York | American Suffragettes | American Temperance Movement | National American Woman Suffrage Association | Scipio, New York | Howland Name Study | National Women's Hall of Fame (United States) | Notables | Centenarians