Susan Nye

Female

1790

1867

Amenia, NY

Raleigh, NC
Augusta, GA

Adam Hutchison (February 10, 1825)

Susan Nye Hutchinson of Amenia, New York was the daughter of Silvenus and Silvenia Nye. It is believed that Susan may have recieved a formal education at the Litchfield Female Academy like her sister Amanda. In 1815, she left her family's home in Amenia, NY to travel to North Carolina where she began her career in teaching at the Raleigh Female Academy. In 1823 she traveled to Georgia with her sister Amanda. She met and married Adam Hutchison, a widower with three children, and opened "Miss Hutchison's School" in 1827. The two had financial struggles throughout their marriage, and Susan's diary indicates that Adam also struggled with managing anger. In 1830, she traveled north to Amenia where she left her sister Amanda and her two eldest sons. She returned to Augusta to Susan's ability to earn ...an income through teaching helped them make ends meet. In 1833, illness prompted Adam Huchison to resign his position at a regional bank and head south to attempt recovery. Susan returned to Amenia in 1833 with the rest of her family. Adam died a year later in Florida. She eventually accepted a position in Raleigh, NC where she remained for a short time before opening an academy in Salisbury, NC. Her children remained in her sister's care in Amenia.
During her time in the south, Susan developed the opinion that "Slavery is a great evil..." She authored an essay addressed to the women o the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society that was published by the American Colonization Society's, African Repository and Colonial Journal in 1836. She believed in conversion of the enslaved population to Christianity, and in earlier years she and Adam allowed a congregation of enslaved people to hold worship services in their kitchen. She also published an essay in the Charlotte Observer arguing against a division in the Presbyterian Church over slavery. In 1838, contrary to law, she began to teach a small group of slaves to read in order to achieve religious conversion. Several of her sons attended college in the south, but Susan chose to return home between 1847 and 1848. She died in 1867.
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Unknown

Educator

[We are currently working to update and confirm citations of attendance.]

Tolley, Kim Heading South to Teach: The World of Susan Nye Hutchison, 1815-1845, University of North Carolina Press, 2015.

Hutchison, Susan Davis Nye African repository and colonial journal, "Mrs. Hutchinson's [sic] Letter," American Colonization Society, Volume XII, No 5., 1836. Accessed at https://archive.org/details/africanrepositor125amer_1 April 7, 2017.