Jennie Dean
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Jennie Dean |
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Jennie Dean
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 15, 1848 Sudley Springs, Prince William County, Virginia |
| Died | 3 May 1913 (aged 65) Catharpin, Prince William County, Virginia |
| Occupation | Missionary, educator |
Jane Serepta Dean (15 April 1848 – May 3, 1913) (nicknamed "Jennie" or "Miss Jennie") was born into slavery in northern Virginia, freed as a result of the American Civil War, and became an important founder of churches and Sunday Schools for African Americans in northern Virginia. Dean founded the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth, which for more than four decades was the only institution of higher education available to African American youth in Northern Virginia, and one of only two in the state without overt religious affiliation.
Jennie Dean was born to Charles Dean (a domestic servant) and his wife Annie, both of them African Americans born enslaved and owned by the Newman family, and later by the Cushing family. Her grandmother Mildred may have been of Native American ancestry. She had two sisters (Ella Dean and Mary Dean), both of whom married after the American Civil War, although Jennie Dean herself never married. Her sister Ella's death certificate lists Jennie's birth date as April 15, 1848, but another death certificate indicates Jennie Dean as born in 1853.
After Virginia seceded from the Union and the American Civil War began, Col. Cushing's sons joined the Confederate Army. The elder Cushing died shortly after learning one son had died in a battle near Warrenton, Virginia. Earlier, the First Battle of Manassas was fought near their home, and the Dean family stayed in their cabin and hoped to avoid the artillery shelling and crossfire. Afterward, on the master's instructions, her father and other enslaved men rescued wounded Confederate soldiers, and later buried many dead. The following year, the Second Battle of Manassas was fought on much of the same ground, since Manassas Junction was a railroad hub and Manassas Gap a key pass between coastal and the Piedmont region of Virginia.
After the war ended, Dean received rudimentary schooling at a Manly School. Although still a teenager in 1866, she sought domestic service work in Washington, D.C., taking the train home on weekends. In Washington, she attended a Congregational church, then joined the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, as well as lived frugally.
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