On July 23, 1897, a newspaper reported that Alice Ruth Moore had begun teaching at a public school in Brooklyn. Alice had just turned 22 years old and was engaged to Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Miss Alice Ruth Moore, one of our exemplary and scholarly ladies, has been adopted by Brooklyn, and placed permanently as a teacher in public school No. 83 of that city. Miss Moore was formerly a teacher in New Orleans and has made an enviable success in that line of work. She is best known however as a writer and as a missionary laborer in behalf of the needy and unfortunate people. She well deserves her success in New York.
The American Citizen (Kansas City, Kansas). July 23, 1897. Page 2.
Paul objected to Alice's teaching role, concerned that it could hinder her career as a writer and also come between them as a couple. He urged her to quit her job and marry him as soon as possible.
I hope you are writing some too. Don't let that miserable school kill out every other ambition. I shall be glad when I can take you entirely away from it, and give you that leisure which is more congenial to successful composition.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore, May 4, 1897. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 5).
During this era, only single women were allowed to teach school, so Alice knew she would lose her job after she married Paul. She wondered what other kind of work she could do afterward.
Our engagement seems to be pretty well known now. Everyone in New York has it, but it hasn't reached Brooklyn yet. These people are so slow. One Brooklyn man when told of it said, "Oh no, why she's just begun teaching, she wouldn't give up a position in Brooklyn to marry." Brooklynites make me tired, they imagine one is so glad to be among them and teaching in their old schools, that they wouldn't dare leave. I will try to help you to save not spend. I wish I could add some to the income, but the only things I can do are write, teach, and be a stenographer, and keep books and give lessons in some things. I can do fancy work too, but it's slow and doesn't pay, and folks don't take lessons in things much, and you wouldn't want me to be at some other man's elbow taking dictation, would you? And school-boards don't allow married women to teach and editors won't accept my scribbling, so I guess I'll have to stay at home and watch over the family exchequer, eh?
Alice Ruth Moore to Paul Laurence Dunbar, October 10, 1897. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
The following month, the Dunbars had a disastrous sexual encounter and Alice was injured. The incident prompted Paul to again insist that she quit teaching and marry him.
Darling you must never go back to school again. As soon as you are well enough we must marry, and God will, He must make you well enough and soon.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore, December 1, 1897. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 5).
I wish you wouldn't ever go back to that
da, I mean blessed old school any more, case I's longin' fu' you, honey.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore, December 21, 1897. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 5).
Alice did not do as she was told, and even after the wedding she continued to teach by keeping her marriage a secret. Before she met Paul, Alice wrote an essay about the freedom of being a single woman.
Take the average working woman of today. She works from five to ten hours a day. She goes home or to her boarding-house, as the case may be. Her meals are prepared for her, she has no household cares upon her shoulders, no troublesome dinners to prepare for a fault-finding husband, no fretful children to try her patience. Her day's work ends at the office, school, factory or store; the rest of the time is hers, undisturbed by the restless going to and fro of housewifely cares, and she can employ it in mental or social diversions. She does not incessantly rely upon the whims of a cross man to take her to such amusements as she desires. In this nineteenth century she is free to go where she pleases, without a single harrowing thought of the baby's milk or the husband's coffee. So why should she hasten to give this liberty up in exchange for a serfdom, sweet sometimes, it is true, but which too often becomes galling and unendurable.
Excerpt from "The Woman" by Alice Ruth Moore. Published in Violets and Other Tales. The Monthly Review (Boston, Massachusetts). 1895. Page 22.