"Sarah-Mapps-Douglass" (September 9,1806-September 8,1882)

Born in Philadelphia,Sarah was the daughter of Robert Douglass & Grace Bustill Douglass.Her granddaddy was Cyrus Bustill,a Quaker,who owned a bakery,operated a school,and was one of the early members of the Free African Society,the first African-American charity organization.Her mama operated a millinery store next to the family bakery.sarah entered the "colored" school that her mama and the wealthy,African American ship builder James Forten established in 1819.

Around 1827,Philadelphia established a school a school for African American children was to be self-supporting,by 1838,the the leveling of funding was insufficient and the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society took over.Sarah was a member and attended a number of the board of directors,of the committee on annual fairs,of the education committee,as a librarian,and a comesponding secretary.

During the 1830s,some of the Quakers challenged the city's segregation practices,and Sarah" efforts in the cause were significant.When William Bassett of Lynn,Massachusetts,undertook a plan to bring his fellow New England Quakers into the antislavery movement,Sarah provided him with important information on the Arch Street Meeting's segregated seating practices.She also supplied abolitionist Sarah Grimke,a white woman,with imformation that Sarah Grimke used in writing her 1837 statement "Subject of prejudice against color amongst the Society of Friends in the United States," written in response to her censure by the Quakers for insisting on sitting beside Sarah and her mama at service.When Angelina Grimke & Theodore Weld,a prominent abolitionist,were married in May 1838,Sarah and her mama were among the Negro guests at the wedding.The Philadelphia press called the incident and intolerable act of abolitionist' "amalgamated" practices.

Two days later,a mob burned down the Pennsylvania Hall,the state antislavery society's newly built headquarters,and fire to the Shelter for Colored Oprhans,Sarah continued her teaching career.In 1853 she was appointed head of the girls' primary department of the institute of  Colored Youth.The institute was the forerunner of Cheney (Pennsylvania) State College.Sarah remained there until her retirement in 1877.In 1855,she married William Douglass,a rector of St.Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church, a widower with several children.After her husband's death in 1881,Sarah devoted her time to antislavery activities and continued her teaching.

When the Civil War ended,Sarah became -vice-woman of the Woman's Pennsylvania Branch of the American Freedmen's Aid Commission.