Born into an affluent and politically active black family, Charlotte Forten Grimk'e (1837-1914) was a scholar, reformer, teacher and writer. Her journals describe her privileged childhood, her sporadic teaching career, her involvement with the anti-slavery movement, her eighteen months teaching the contraband slaves of the South Carolina Sea Islands during the Civil War and her later work as poet and essayist. Thanks to her keen observation and meticulous accounts of the people and events that shaped her life, her journals provide a unique and personal view of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.