You are here Mary Terrell, advocate of women’s rights One of the
reasons slaves were separated from common tribes at the time of
their capture and shipment to various colonies was to cut any
form of communication among them to ensure no plan of escape or
revolt would take place. Slaves were not allowed to read or
write to also prevent this from happening. They were not
educated because if they were, they were more likely to resist
slavery, as we saw in the case of Toussaint L’Overture, the
slave who defeated Napoleon. One woman who made her name known
to the world as the first coloured woman to earn a college
degree is Mary Church Terrell. She is featured in today’s Great
Black Women in History series. Look out for next Wednesday’s
feature on Shirley Chisholm, first elected African-American
women to have a seat in Congress. Terrell was born in Memphis,
Tennessee, to Robert Reed Church and Louisa Ayers, both former
slaves. Robert Church was mixed-race and said to be the son of
his white master, Charles Church.