Lucy Chase and Sarah Chase

Lucy Chase (1822–1909) and Sarah Chase (1836–1911) were sisters from Massachusetts, United States, who volunteered as teachers in freedmen's schools during and after the American Civil War. Their letters to each other and their friends and family from this period are a valuable resource for historians on the Reconstruction era and on 19th-century African-American social and cultural history. The letter collection Dear Ones at Home was published by Vanderbilt University Press in 1965.

Life and work

Lucy Chase was born and died in Worcester, Massachusetts. Sarah Chase was born in Worcester, died in Leicester, and is buried at Rural Cemetery in Worcester. Their mother Lydia Earle's father was Pliny Earle I, an inventor of cotton-processing mechanisms, their mother's mother Patience Buffum was sister to the Quaker abolitionist Arnold Buffum, and their father Anthony Benezet Chase was "a highly respected and successful businessman and treasurer of Worcester County." Two of their brothers, Pliny Earle Chase and Thomas Chase, were professors at Haverford. The sisters were motivated to volunteer in part due the teachings of their Quaker faith. They were initially paid $25 a month and given $20 for supplies.

At the time of her death, Lucy Chase's obituary summarized her legacy: "During the civil war she became a teacher in the schools established by Gen. Butler at Craney Island, near Norfolk, Va.