[2] Born in Canandaigua, New York, Holley was interested in education and reading from a young age.

[3] Holley's inspiration for her later abolitionist work further strengthened when she continued her education at Oberlin College in 1847, where she encountered a biracial school community in an attempt to pursue a classical curriculum.

Yet after this lecture circuit, Putnam decided to focus on teaching, specifically those now freedmen of Lottsburg, Virginia.

Everybody gave the best possible attention, and as she related several thrilling and affecting facts, the big tears coursed down many a cheek.

At the close she offered a very touching and simple prayer,[9] all with the desire to put an end to what she coined as the "atrocious hatred of color.