Sarah Black was the first Mail Carrier in 1845 in Charleston, Maryland

 

The first known woman to be appointed as a mail carrier was SARAH BLACK in April of 1845. She lived in Charleston, Maryland and her annual salary was $48 per year.

Mrs. Linn, a post mistress in St. Louis states that great exertions are making in that city to secure the appoitment of Mrs. Linn, the widow of the late Senator Linn, as PostMistress of St. Louis. Her petition is signed by nearly all the Democratic members of the State Legislature.

   In 1862 the United States Post Office recorded five women who had been appointed postmasters directly by the President of the United States (not uncommon at that time).

They were Ann Gentry PM of Columbia, Missouri

Maria Hornbeck of Allentown, Pennsylvania

Ann L. Ruthrauff PM at Lebanon, Pennsylvania

Mary Berard PM at West Point, New York

Margaret Sillyman, Pottsville, Pennsylvania.

 

[Usps.com/who-we-are-/postal-history/women-postmasters.pdf, accessed 4/8/21]

   It was especially challenging for black women to find jobs with the post office. In the free north before Emancipation and even after Emancipation they could find it to be difficult. Postmaster General Joseph Habersham was apparently

working toward being an equal opportunity employer. On the USPS web site [about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/african-american-workers-19thc.pdf] I found this quote from Postmaster General Habersham:

 

 In the North, and even in some areas of the South, blacks, including slaves, were being used as mail carriers by the post office. However, in 1802 Congress actually banned African Americans as mail carriers due to an unfounded fear that the slaves may be planning a rebellion.

 

The Ban in 1802 read:

 

…after the 1^st day of November next, no other than a free white person shall be employed in carrying the mail of the United States, on any of the post roads, either as a post rider or driver of a carriage carrying the mail.”

 

Finally, in March of 1865, after the end of the Civil War and after Emancipation, Congress passed legislation that read:

 

“no person, by reason of color, shall be disqualified from employment in carrying the mails”, [13 Stat. 515]”

This has been an excerpt from "In Her Likeness" https://amzn.to/3SurXip