"…Black Savannah was a progressive autonomous community that was in the vanguard of efforts in southern communities to establish an independent black church and black schools. It was the  only black community that had an infirmary to provide health care, one of the few communities that had a cemetery to give African Americans a proper burial, and one in which African  Americans, free and enslaved, lived together as one people.” 

—Whittington B. Johnson 

Mother Mathilda Beasley Park and Home 

Georgia historians do not know how Mathilda Taylor made her way to Savannah in the 1850s or how she became a free Black woman. We do know that Mathilda was born into slavery in New Orleans around 1832, while the 1860 census listed her among the 705 free Blacks living within the port city of Savannah. 

Naturally, free Blacks in Savannah had rights and privileges that slaves did not have. They could choose to earn a living from a fairly limited set of available trades but at times were forced by city authorities the indignity of wearing a badge indicating their status as a free person.  

Free African-American women often worked as seamstresses, domestic laborers, or cooks. As we know, Mother Mathilda Taylor Beasley (see PFS-87) worked as a seamstress while also daring to teach black children how to read and write at her home in Savannah. 

In his book, Black Savannah: 1788-1864, University of Miami history professor Whittington B. Johnson detailed typical daily life for African Americans living in Antebellum Savannah. 

Both the State of Georgia and the City of Savannah attempted to actively discourage the growth of the free Black population within their respective jurisdictions. They largely failed in this project, but they did try to manipulate free Blacks by imposing a $100 tax on those entering the State or the city. 

Other State statutes and City ordinances forbid free Blacks from earning a living in specific businesses, such as masonry, or owning liquor stores or pharmacies. Relatively expensive business licenses were sometimes required to practice many other trades. But legal licensure requirements often went unenforced and could be circumvented by motivated and enterprising free Black workers. 

Many free Blacks also owned slaves of their own and employed them in their small businesses, as did Mathilda’s husband. Surprisingly, most Black slaveowners in Antebellum Savannah were female. At the time, free Black women outnumbered free Black men in Savannah by almost three-fold.  

There were intermittent efforts, motivated primarily by envy and jealousy, to halt the right of free Blacks from owning Black slaves. These efforts largely came at the urging of poor white laborers, most of whom could never afford to own a slave of their own. 

In 1860, by the time Mathilda Taylor (Beasley) made her way to Savannah, free Blacks owned real estate and other personal property, such as slaves, largely unmolested by local legal restrictions. 

This en Plein air was painted in Mother Mathilda Beasley Park. Located just off Broad Street within the Savannah Historic District, this park is frequented daily by many of my favorite people — dog owners, who bring their best friends to play in the beautiful fenced-in dog park located in Beasley Park!  

Mother Mathilde Beasley owned this small house until she died in 1903. It was later renovated and moved to her park in 2012 and now serves as a museum detailing Mathilda Beasley’s life of service.