In honor of Black History Month, the remarkable story of Charlotta Gordon Pyles, an emblematic figure of courage and resilience in the face of oppression, is brought to the forefront of Keokuk’s historical narrative. 

 

Before the Civil War, the geographical divide between freedom and slavery was starkly embodied by the Des Moines River, with the Iowa riverbanks promising the start of a new life in freedom for many fleeing the brutal confines of enslavement. It was within this context that Charlotta Pyles emerged as a formidable figure, dubbed "Iowa's Emancipator" for her relentless fight against slavery and her efforts to secure freedom for herself, her family, and others.

 

Early Life and Escape to Freedom

 

Charlotta and her 12 children were enslaved by the Gordon family in Bardstown, Kentucky. After the death of Hugh Gordon in 1834, Charlotta was supposed to be freed along with some of her children, as per Hugh’s wishes. However, Frances, Hugh’s daughter, faced opposition from her brothers regarding the emancipation of Charlotta and her children. In 1853 one of Charlotta's sons, Benjamin, was kidnapped by Frances' brothers and sold into slavery. 

 

Frances faced legal challenges from her brothers, which included the jailing of Pyles family at one point, but eventually won the right to move Charlotta and some of her family north to freedom. It was a treacherous and costly journey to move through slave states, and by the time they crossed the Des Moines River into Southeast Iowa in late 1853, winter had arrived. They decided to settle in Keokuk, then a growing Mississippi port with 3,000 residents. 

 

Settlement in Keokuk and Contributions

 

Charlotta played a significant role in the Keokuk community, both as a lodestar for newly arriving freed Black people and as an active member of the First Baptist Church. Due to its geographic location, Keokuk became a strategic haven for African Americans seeking freedom and new beginnings. Though no longer enslaved, the Pyles family and Frances (who continued to live with them) struggled to make ends meet.

 

Charlotta formulated a plan. She contacted the enslavers of her two sons-in-law who were still in the South and learned she could purchase their freedom for $1,500 each (a total equivalent of over $123,000 today). Charlotta thought if these men could join the family and find work, they could give the family the financial boost they needed to make it. 

 

Charlotta went on a speaking tour around the East Coast, preaching about the evils of slavery, to raise the $3,000 she needed. Along her tour, she became friends with Frederick Douglass (who later visited Keokuk), William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony. 

 

“It was a difficult task for a poor, ignorant woman, who had never had a day’s schooling in her life, to travel thousands of miles in a strange country and stand up night after night and day after day before crowds of men and women, pleading for those back in slavery,” Grace Morris Allen Jones, Charlotta’s granddaughter, wrote in 1920. “So well did she plead, however, that in about six months she had raised the necessary $3,000, returned to Iowa, thence to Kentucky where she bought the two men from their owners, and reunited them with their families.”

 

After returning to Keokuk, Charlotta legally married her husband, Harry, in 1857, and the family opened their home as a stop along the Underground Railroad route to Canada. 

 

Impact on Education and Civil Rights

 

Like most schools in the 19th century, schools in Keokuk were segregated. The first school for African American children in Keokuk was built in 1869 at 11th and Main streets, but was only meant to serve as a primary school. When Charlotta’s daughter, Charlotta Smith, tried to enroll her son, Geroid, in the all-white Keokuk High School, school officials refused to admit him. 

 

Charlotta and other Black families filed a lawsuit against the school, and in 1875, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in their favor, ordering all the state’s schools integrated. This significant ruling predated the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by nearly 80 years. 

 

This victory not only benefited Charlotta’s grandson, but also set a precedent for the integration of public schools across the United States. Geroid Smith the son and grandson of former enslaved African Americans, was one of the first Black students to graduate from Keokuk High School when he was awarded his diploma in 1880.

 

Legacy

 

Through her actions, Charlotta Gordon Pyle became known as "Iowa's Emancipator.” Her legacy teaches us of the power of individual agency in the collective struggle for freedom and equality, and it highlights the important role that Keokuk, and Iowa more broadly, played in the history of African American activism and community building.

 

Charlotta Pyle’s story is preserved in the Grace Morris Allen Jones collection at the Iowa Women’s Archives. She is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Keokuk.

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- From the Daily Gate City, 1/2/2024