Page:Women of distinction.djvu/430

348 teachers employed. She lived with his family and enjoyed their warmest friendship.

In 1859, while teaching at Newport, she was invited by Myrtilla Miner to go to Washington, D. C., and assist her in teaching a school which Miss Miner had established for the education of colored girls. She did not, however, accept the invitation, because her father was not willing that she should brave the bitter feeling existing between the North and South. Miss Miner was thus left to combat her perilous attempt all alone, but victory crowned her efforts, and it was the result of her struggles that the Miner fund was created, through which Miss Briggs came to the public colored schools of Washington and Georgetown, D. C., as principal of the Miner Normal School, twenty years later.

She began the study of medicine at Boston before she went South to teach, but did not complete the course, a taste of the subject having convinced her that she was better adapted to teaching than for becoming a mere nurse, the purpose for which she entered the Boston Medical College.

It is said by good authority that she was specially trained for teaching at the Bridgewater Normal School, but her immediate relatives now living are not sure that such was true. She was away from home quite awhile, taking a special course in Latin and French, and it may be that during this time she took the normal course. Be this as it may, she was pre-eminently master of