Martha Bailey Briggs

Born on March 31, 1838, to John and Fanny Briggs, active Black abolitionists in New Bedford, Martha Bailey Briggs (1838-1889) realized at a young age that education was essential to ending slavery. Her life is a testament to the leadership that African American women provided in the field of education during the 19th century.

Her father, John Briggs of Tiverton, Rhode Island, was a well-known abolitionist and friend of Frederick Douglass. Her mother, abolitionist Fanny Bassett Briggs of Martha’s Vineyard, died when Martha was a young child. John encouraged Martha to study hard and arranged for her to be privately tutored. At the age of 12, Martha entered New Bedford High School in 1850 and became one of the first African American women to graduate from the school. Martha soon began teaching in her father’s home on Allen Street conducting day classes for young students and evening classes for adults, including those with ties to the Underground Railroad.

One of her first teaching positions was on Martha’s Vineyard teaching the Gay Head and Mashpee Wampanoags on the reservation. She was then hired to teach in Newport at a private school by George T. Downing, a Black abolitionist and entrepreneur with restaurants in Newport and New York City. His own children attended the private school to avoid the segregated public schools. It was in Newport where her reputation as a teacher came to the attention of abolitionist educator Myrtilla Miner who invited her in 1859 to join the faculty at the Miner Normal School in Washington, D.C. Martha’s father did not support her moving south at the time due to the increased tensions between the North and the South and fear for Martha’s safety, so she declined Miner’s offer.

Martha continued to work for the educational advancement of African Americans, and her move south would eventually become a reality. In 1866, she was one of 40 New Bedford educators to travel south to teach freed Blacks after the Civil War. In 1869, after 10 years of teaching in various positions, Martha accepted a full-time teaching position in the public schools of Washington, D.C., where she was recognized for her leadership and soon became principal of the Anthony Bowen School until 1873. From 1873 until 1879, she joined the faculty at the Normal and Preparatory Department of Howard University, now the School of Education at Howard. In 1879, 20 years after Martha’s first invitation to the Miner Normal School, she became its third principal and remained there through 1883. In June 1880, Briggs received the commendation of the Board: “We express the belief and hope that the Miner Normal School, whose first year has proven so successful under the earnest and faithful charge of its principal, Miss Martha Briggs, will eventually not only supply the colored schools of the district with educated and earnest teachers but that it will in measure contribute to supply the demand of the South for colored teachers for the colored race.” The Miner Normal School was known for training African American teachers to teach African American students in the District and other southern locations. During her four years as its principal, Martha led about 80 student teachers through successful program completion to graduation. In 1883, Martha left the Miner Normal School and returned to Howard University to serve as principal of its Normal Department until 1889. Her extensive experience as both teacher and administrator was invaluable in the development of teacher training programs in Normal schools, the predecessors of education departments in today’s colleges and universities.

Because of illness in 1883, Briggs elected to end her service as Miner Normal School Principal and returned to Howard University’s Normal Department. The Catalogue records her as “Principal of the Normal Department.”

Briggs died March 28, 1889, at the age of fifty. The District of Columbia Certificate of Death records the cause of death as a tumor. Over the years since her death, the District of Columbia Board of Education named two elementary schools in her honor. Both have subsequently been demolished. However, Briggs’ contributions to the preparation of teachers have been more permanently enshrined in the history of the Minor Normal School. By an Act of Congress in 1930, it became Miner Teachers College. Housed in a Gregorian structure still standing at 2565 Georgia Avenue, N.W., this building served Miner Normal School (1913-29) and the District of Columbia Teachers College (1955-77). Today it houses some of the teacher preparation programs on the University of the District of Columbia.

She was returned to New Bedford, Massachusetts, her birthplace, for burial. A memorial to her life and service was held by the Bethel Literary and Historical Association. Furthermore, Howard University memorialized her with a tablet placed on the wall of Andrew Rankin Chapel on the campus. In its March 1934 Founder’s Day program, Miner Teacher’s College celebrated her service as the third principal of Miner Normal School.

New Bedford Historical Society; Lighting the Way, Historic Women of the Southcoast; Lighting the Way: Historic Women of the Southcoast, article written by Lee Blake; Notable Black American Women, Book 2 By Jessie Carney Smith