From Cotton Fields to Mission Fields: The Anna Knight Story

Born in the south to a slave mother and a white father, Anna Knight grew up in the Jasper County, Mississippi cotton fields. Realizing this wasn’t for her, she taught herself to read and write and eventually became the first in her family to graduate from College. In From Cotton Fields to Mission Fields, author Dorothy Knight Marsh tells her great-aunt’s story. This memoir follows Anna from her early years in Mississippi, around the world, and back again. She graduated as a nurse from Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan and later returned home and operated a self-supporting school for the adults and children. Anna was then appointed a missionary to India, serving nearly seven years. Never forgetting those she left behind, Anna returned to the United States and restarted the school the knight riders burned. From Cotton Fields to Mission Fields narrates the story of a woman of purpose who had no fear, dedicated her life to education, establishing schools throughout the south for all black children.