- Attended local public schools
- Entered Boston's Eliot Grammar School and was considered a model student for behavior while still struggling academically.
- She did quite well in elementary education.
- In 1845 went to Perkins school for the blind . There at age 10 , under the teaching of Samuel Gridly Howe made excellent gains
- Her education also involved instruction in cooking, the domestic arts, sewing and knitting, physical activities that improved her motor coordination, speech lessons
- Also learnt reading and math with specially made apparatus at Boston
- Became the first lady who became Principal at all blind Massachusetts Institute in 1870-1878
- Established her all black Boston Home in 1865 after the civil war , as it became hard due to racism in other institutions especially Perkins