User:Rvlieee/Helen Pitts Douglass

Early life and education
She was born in Honeoye, New York in 1838. Her parents were activists in the abolitionist and suffragist movements. She was also a descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Alden, who sailed to America on the Mayflower, and a cousin of John and John Q. Adams. Pitts graduated from Mount Holyoke College (then called the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) in 1859. After her graduation, she returned back to her parents' home in Honeoye. After the U.S. Civil War, she taught at the Hampton Institute, a school that helped to educate black men and women. While teaching at the institution, she caused the arrest of several local residents because she mistakenly thought that they had abused her students. In 1882, Helen moved to Uniontown in Washington, D.C. to live with her uncle, where she lived next door to Frederick Douglass' home, Cedar Hill.

Death
Helen Pitts Douglass died in 1903, aged 65 years old. She wished to buried on the cite of Cedar Hill but laws at this time prevented it. She had no funeral or memorial service and was quietly buried next to Frederick Douglass in Rochester. After her death, the $5,500 mortgage was reduced to $4,000, and the National Association of Colored Women, led by Mary B. Talbert of Buffalo, New York, raised funds to buy Cedar Hill. Administered by the National Park Service, the Frederick Douglass Memorial Home conducts tours to inform visitors of Douglass' contributions to freedom.