Rachel Crane Mather

Rachel Crane Rich Mather (February 5, 1823 – February 11, 1903) established the Mather School for daughters of freed slaves in 1867 in South Carolina. The school eventually became the Technical College of the Lowcountry.[1][2]

Rachel Crane Mather
Born
Rachel Crane Rich

(1823-02-05)February 5, 1823[1]
Troy, New Hampshire, USA
DiedFebruary 11, 1903(1903-02-11) (aged 79)[2]
Deep River, Connecticut
NationalityAmerican
OccupationEducator
Known forFounding the Mather School
Spouse(s)Joseph Higgins Mather, Jr.
ChildrenJoseph Higgins Mather III,
Samuel Webb Mather
Parent(s)Ezekiel Rich

Biography

Rachel Crane Mather was the sixth of nine children born to Christian missionaries living in New Hampshire in 1823.[1] Her father, Ezekiel Rich, was a Congregational minister. Rachel worked as a teacher in Boston,[3] and in 1846 married a Baptist minister named Joseph Higgins Mather, Jr. in Rhode Island. They had two sons, but a just few years after marrying, her husband and their youngest son Samuel both died.[4]

Mather believed that God wanted her to help freed slaves, and was assigned by the American Missionary Association to teach at a normal school for freed slaves in Beaufort, South Carolina. She was especially heartbroken over the many orphans she saw, whose parents had often been sold or shipped elsewhere, and who were living in the streets with no access to food or education.[1]

After a year of teaching for the AMA, she founded the Mather School of Beaufort, which opened in 1868, during America's Reconstruction Period, with Mather serving as principal. The school provided housing, food, and clothing in addition to education such as reading, grammar, math, housekeeping skills, and "moral development" with a curriculum centered around the Bible.[1][4][5] The Mather School was supported financially by the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society.[3] It began with a focus on elementary-aged girls, but expanded to middle school, high school, and college as time went on.[3] The school was one of the pioneering schools for teaching former slaves and their children, and provided a "rigorous and character-building experience", according to Dr. Lucy Reuben who attended the school.[6]

The school continued until 1968, at which point it was sold to the state of South Carolina.[7] The school eventually became the Technical College of the Lowcountry.[1]

In 2017, the Mather Interpretive Center, housed in the school's former library, opened in Beaufort to preserve the history of the school and its founder.[3][8] Greg Rawls, a Beaufort Arts Council member, said regarding the opening: "This is an amazing story that people just don't seem to know about... What we want is for this Beaufort story to be more than just a sign by the road."

Thomas Leitzel, president of the Technical College of the Lowcountry, called Mather a "hero with a vision and commitment to making life better through education."[9]

References
  1. Dawson-Thompson, Nakeisha (April 2, 2020). "Honoring the Legacy of Rachel Crane Mather". Beaufort Lifestyle. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  2. "Rachel Crane Rich Mather". Find a grave. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  3. Copeland, Ryan (September 6, 2017). "How Beaufort's Mather School changed lives in the past — and can inform our present". The Beaufort Gazette. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  4. "Women of History: Rachel Crane Mather". July 10, 2017. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  5. Beasley, S.F. (2014). Pioneering Women of Southern Education: A Comparative Study of Northern and Southern School Founders. (Doctoral dissertation)
  6. Roach, Ronald (August 14, 2003). "A Rich, Disappearing Legacy Remembering Black Boarding Schools: A tradition obscured by desegregation's impact". Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  7. "Mather School National Alumni Association". Benedict College. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  8. "Mather Museum and Interpretive Center". greenbookofsc.com. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  9. Cerve, Kate (May 15, 2010). "Lowcountry tech school once taught slaves' daughters". The Beaufort Gazette. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
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