
She taught African Americans to read and write when that was against the law. She burned a Confederate flag. She insisted on flying a Union flag in pro-Confederate town. She was the woman who stood in a muddy street and appealed to a Confederate officer’s humanity to provide aid for suffering Union soldiers.
Yes, everyone in the town of New Market, Virginia, knew about Jessie Hainning Rupert. Brave, irrepressible, educated, and feminine – she rocked the traditional, racist, and political views of her town during the Civil War.
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