Born in Bristol in 1837, Abby D. Munro was a Bristol public school and Sunday school teacher who went on to become the principal of the Laing School for Freedmen in Point Pleasant, South Carolina. Her pupils were freed slaves, more than 425 at one point in her 44-year history at the school, who were taught educational basics as well as industries that led to employment. Abby is also credited with founding an orphanage when the state of South Carolina wouldn’t provide for orphaned children of former slaves, and a thrift shop that provided necessities like clothing for her students and families. The following was written by Abby, excerpted from “Report of the 33rdYear of the Laing Normal and Industrial School, Mount Pleasant, S.C., for the year ending May 27, 1898”:
“Four hundred and twenty-five pupils have been enrolled the past year, the largest number in attendance… One-half or more of our pupils are village children. The remainder come from the adjoining plantations, or more remote places in the interior. The latter board in the village, among their own people, or hire rooms, and, bringing their “rations” with them, board themselves. Those who live no farther than seven or eight miles, walk that distance daily… Since this is the only school for many miles around, which holds a session of more than three months, or where a colored child can obtain more than the barest rudiment of an education, it can be clearly seen what an important place it holds…”
Biography provided by Dyan Vaughan, First Congregational Church, Bristol
Image courtesy of Pam Meyer, Bristol
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