Charlotte Lotte Stephens

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Despite what is in the history books, women helped shape Arkansas and United States history. Unfortunately, you don’t see women mentioned much in history books or even articles. Luckily, this is changing and we are learning more about influential women in Arkansas’ history. One of these women is Charlotte Stephens. Charlotte “Lottie” Stephens was the first African-American teacher hired in the Little Rock School District. Charlotte was born to slaves, William Andrews and Caroline Williams Andrews. Charlotte’s parents were both urban slaves which enabled them to have certain privileges such as an education and a home. Her father was taught how to read from his master, and later taught Charlotte how to read because he wanted his children to …show more content…

During this time, the racial division in the country was at its worst. When Charlotte was born, in 1854, slavery was very high in Arkansas. Most of the slaves lived on plantations where they were cotton farmers. Their living conditions were cruel, many did not have more than one set of clothes, lived in tiny cabins with a dirt floor, and were separated from their families and friends. Only 1 in 30 slaves worked as an urban slave. Most of this was due to the fact that Arkansas didn’t have many cities. These urban slaves, like Charlotte’s parents, worked in skilled or artisan labor. These slaves lived very similar to their slaveholders. One thing that urban slaves could do was “hire out”. This was when slaves paid their owners to basically live free. This is what Charlotte’s mother did. By the time Charlotte was old enough, and started her teaching career, the civil was over. The slaves were freed, but that didn’t mean that things were easy. Beginning in 1867, also around the time that Charlotte started teaching, radical reconstruction began. This was a turning point in the government, especially in Arkansas’s government. This was the first that Arkansas had elected a republican governor, Powell Clayton. During this time, the public school system was created. Before the civil war, there were private schools and only 6,000 white children

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