Sally Ann (in some documents spelled Sallie Ann) Taylor gave more than 40 years to educating African American children. An enslaved person and maid to Major James Taylor’s daughters in the late 1850s and early 1860s, Sally Ann longed for knowledge as she attended the girls while they learned their lessons. Taylor, recognizing her desire and aptitude, arranged to have her taught.

Sally Ann and her mother were given a cottage on Taylor property after Emancipation. She had been teaching in the evenings, but after Emancipation she opened a school, first in her cottage and later in a small school house near where West Side School was later built. Major Taylor was the owner of the antebellum house now known as the Mansion Museum, on the grounds of Old Fort Harrod State Park. He furnished the ground, built the school house, and equipped it for her simple needs. Here hundreds of African American children were taught until Sally Ann ceased her labors, full of years and respected by all Harrodsburg citizens.

Excerpted by Nancy Hill from Mercer County Slaves Who Have Contributed to Community Life (Neva L. Williams, 1945)