Native Americans called Fields 'White Crow', because 'she acts like a white person but has black skin'. Fields took on multiple roles regarded as 'men's work' at the time such as maintenance, repairs, fetching supplies, laundry, gardening, hauling freight, growing vegetables, tending chickens, and repairing buildings, and eventually became the forewoman. Amadeus recovered, and Fields stayed at St. Learning that Amadeus was stricken with pneumonia, Fields hurried to Montana to nurse her back to health. In 1884, Mother Amadeus was sent to Montana Territory to establish a school for Native American girls at St. After Dunne's wife died, he sent Fields and his late wife's five children to live with his sister Mother Mary Amadeus in Toledo, Ohio where she was Mother Superior of an Ursuline convent. There, she encountered Judge Edmund Dunne and ultimately worked in his household as a servant. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, she was emancipated and found work as a chambermaid on board the Robert E. Biography Early life and career įields was born into slavery in Hickman County, Tennessee c. This enabled the USPS to establish Mary Fields' contribution as the first African-American female star route mail carrier in the United States. Author Miantae Metcalf McConnell provided documentation discovered during her research about Mary Fields to the United States Postal Service Archives Historian in 2006. She drove the route for two four-year contracts, from 1895 to 1899 and from 1899 to 1903. mail from Cascade, Montana, to Saint Peter's Mission.

įields had the star route contract for the delivery of U.S. 1832 – December 5, 1914), also known as Stagecoach Mary and Black Mary, was an American mail carrier who was the first Black woman to be employed as a star route postwoman in the United States. Language eng Summary 'The true story of Mary Fields, aka 'Stagecoach Mary,' a trailblazing African American woman who helped settle the American West.Freighter, cook, domestic worker, star route mail carrierįirst African American woman star route mail carrier in the U.S. Women pioneers - Montana - Biography | Juvenile literature.Letter carriers - Montana - Biography | Juvenile literature.Frontier and pioneer life - Montana - Juvenile literature.Fields, Mary, approximately 1832-1914 - Juvenile literature.Coach drivers - Montana - Biography | Juvenile literature.African American pioneers - Montana - Biography | Juvenile literature.Label Fearless Mary : the adventures of Mary Fields, stagecoach driver Title Fearless Mary Title remainder the adventures of Mary Fields, stagecoach driver Statement of responsibility Tami Charles pictures by Claire Almon Creator

Fearless Mary by Tami Charles