Born: 1781 (Prince George’s County, Maryland)
Died: 1864
Biography:
Alethia Tanner, née Alethia Lethe Browning, (1781–1864) was an American educator and a leader in the African American community of Washington, D.C. in the early nineteenth century. She purchased the freedom of 18 enslaved people and was involved in the creation of The Bell School, the first school for free black children in Washington, D.C.
Alethia “Lethe Browning Tanner was born in 1781 on a plantation owned by Tobias and Mary Belt, in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Alethia had two sisters, Sophia (Bell) and Laurena (Cook). Upon the death of Mary Pratt (Tobias had predeceased his wife) in 1795, the plantation, known as Chelsea Plantation, was inherited by their daughter Rachel Belt Pratt. Mary Belt’s will stipulated that Laurena be sent to live with a sibling of Rachel Pratt’s while Sophia and Alethia were to stay at the Chelsea Plantation.
At some point, both Sophia and Alethia grew and sold vegetables at markets in Alexandria and Washington, D.C. Alethia sold vegetables at a market across from the White House. A doctor’s bill for Thomas Jefferson indicates that Alethia may have worked in the White House during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, though the details of her service are unknown. This is further supported by the fact that Joseph Doughtery, the man who purchased Alethia from Rachel Pratt, served as Thomas Jefferson’s footman while Jefferson was President. Some historians believe that Alethia gave the funds to Doughtery so that he could purchase her and then manumit, or free, her. Doughtery manumitted Alethia a few days after he purchased her. One of the witnesses on her manumission papers in 1810 was William Thornton, the architect of the US Capitol.
In 1826, and for several years after, Alethia was able to save enough money to purchase the freedom for her sister Laurena, Laurena’s husband, their children, and many of her family and friends. Among Laurena’s children was John Francis Cook, Sr., who became schoolmaster of Union Seminary, where he would establish the church and serve as its first pastor. He also founded the Young Man’s Moral and Literary Society, an antebellum abolitionist debating society for free and enslaved blacks, and co-founded Union Bethel AME Church and Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church.
During the Snow Riot of 1835, Cook temporarily fled the city when a white mob attacked and burned down the one-room schoolhouse. Alethia led a remarkable life. She was a businesswoman, owned real estate, and was a supporter and sponsor of educational and religious institutions for the free black community in Washington, D.C. She was a Methodist church member, in part because she was drawn to their position on slavery. Later, she and other African American former slaves left the church, finding it too restrictive in their quest for equality.