Catherine+Ferguson

Catherine Ferguson was born around the time of the American Revolution. She and her mother were enslaved to a man who lived on Water Street in New York City. Catherine was very young when her mother was sold. She never forgot the pain of losing her. It was one reason why she later worked so hard to help young children, especially poor children. When Catherine was about 14, she became a Christian. At about the same time, a white woman bought her for $200 and set her free. Catherine paid half the amount back, though it must have been difficult for her to raise this much money.

Catherine Ferguson made a living by baking cakes for weddings and parties. She was famous for her wonderful cakes, but she cared most about her membership in the Presbyterian Church, and poor children. At one time, she had had a husband and two children, but they apparently died young. Most of her life she lived as a single woman.

She began a Sunday school that may have been the first one in Manhattan. She brought in poor children, taught them religion, and made sure they had enough to eat. She used her own cake money for this. Over the course of her life, she raised or took care of 48 children, 20 of them white. Sometimes she did her charity work with white people, and sometimes she worked alone. White people respected her generosity and faith, and this gave her the freedom to do the work so important to her. After she died of cholera in 1854, her obituary was written by a well-known white businessman and anti-slavery activist. He called her a saint. It was hard not to admire a loving, Christian woman who baked delicious cakes and spent her life teaching and taking care of needy children.

[|Catherine Ferguson]

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