Hannah Kilham

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Hannah Kilham, paper cut portrait.

Hannah Kilham (born August 12, 1774 in Sheffield , † March 31, 1832, born Hannah Spurr ) was an English Methodist and Quaker who worked as a missionary and linguist in West Africa . She has also been a teacher and philanthropic activist in England and Ireland .

Life

Hannah Spurr was born on August 12, 1774, the seventh child of Peter and Hannah Spurr in Sheffield . The father was in the trade. Hannah grew up in the Church of England and was allowed to attend John Wesley's early morning services . When she was just twelve years old (1786), her mother died and she had to take on the role of housewife for her father and five brothers. Her father died two years later and she was sent to a boarding school in Chesterfield . At the age of 20, she joined the Wesleyans.

On April 12, 1798, Spurr was married to Alexander Kilham , founder of the Methodist New Connexion . She was his second wife and he died eight months later (December 20, 1798) in Nottingham . Hannah Kilham opened a day school in Nottingham and spent her vacations in Epworth , her husband's former home. There she met the Quakers and in 1802 she joined the Society of Friends .

Activist activity and mission

Kilham began philanthropic work in Sheffield. In addition to teaching, she founded a Society for the Bettering of the Condition of the Poor , a model that was soon emulated elsewhere.

In 1817 Kilham began work on scriptless languages ​​in West Africa with the aim of spreading Christianity. She created elementary grammar for the children in mission schools in Sierra Leone . She learned Jaloof (Wolof) and Mandingo (Mandinka) from two African sailors who were trained in Tottenham , and in 1820 published the First Lessons in Jaloof anonymously . She prompted the Society of Friends to form an unofficial African Instruction Fund Committee , which existed from 1819 to 1825 and even then allowed participation by women. The committee, which also included William Allen and Luke Howard , sent William Singleton to West Africa as a pioneer .

First trip to Africa

In October 1823 Kilham went on a trip to Africa under the supervision of the Committee for promoting African Instruction . She sailed with three Quaker missionaries and the two African sailors to St. Mary’s (= Bakau ) in Gambia . Here she set up a school and taught in Wolof. She also taught in Sierra Leone . Kilham had an Irish assistant in Sierra Leone, Ann Thompson from Cooladine .

In July 1824 she returned to England to report to the committee.

In 1826 she worked in Spitalfields (East End of London) on education, work and health issues. She even hired the pathologist Thomas Hodgkin to curb the rampant diseases, which, however, had little success.

Then Kilham went to Ireland and spent a few months with the British and Irish Ladies' Society for famine relief ( food aid ).

Second trip to Africa

On November 11, 1827 Kilham sailed again for Sierra Leone and carried numerous tracts with ( African School Tracts. London 1827), which she had published herself. She visited Freetown and the surrounding villages; in doing so, she created word lists in 25 languages ​​within two or three months. She returned to England for health reasons.

Third trip to Africa and death

On October 17, 1830, Kilham went again to Free Town. She had received permission from the governor to take care of "recaptive children" who had been rescued from slave ships. Then she traveled back to Liberia , attended schools in Monrovia and made preparations to send some African children to England for education. Around February 23, 1832, she embarked for Sierra Leone. She died at sea on March 31, 1832.

Works

  • Scripture Selections. London 1817.
  • Lessons on Language. 1818.
  • Family maxims. 1818.
  • First Lessons in Spelling. 1818.
  • Report on a Recent Visit to Africa. 1827.
  • The Claims of West Africa to Christian Instruction. 1830.

Hannah Kilham's memoirs and diaries were published in 1837 by her step-daughter Sarah Biller (née Kilham). This maintained a school in the tradition of Joseph Lancaster in Saint Petersburg . A selection of Hannah Kilham's works was reissued as Writings on Education in West Africa 2010.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eileen Yeo: Radical Femininity: Women's Self-Representation in the Public Sphere . Manchester University Press ND, 1998, ISBN 978-0-7190-5244-6 , p. 27 (Accessed April 12, 2012).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Charlotte Fell Smith: Kilham, Hannah . In: Dictionary of National Biography . 31. London: Smith, Elder & Co 1892.
  3. ^ A b Clare Midgley: Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns, 1780-1870 . Routledge, 1992, ISBN 978-0-415-06669-3 , pp. 221-2 (accessed April 12, 2012).
  4. Jump up ↑ Samuel Greatheed, Daniel Parken, Theophilus Williams, Thomas Price, Josiah Conder, William Hendry Stowell, Jonathan Edwards Ryland, Edwin Paxton Hood: The Eclectic Review . C. Taylor, 1822, p. 429 (Retrieved April 12, 2012).
  5. ^ William Allen: Life of William Allen: with selections from his correspondence . H. Longstreth, 1847, p. 151 (accessed April 12, 2012).
  6. ↑ Amalie M. Kass, Edward H. Kass: Perfecting the World: The life and times of Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, 1798-1866 1988, p. 170.
  7. ^ Sue Morgan: Women, Religion, and Feminism in Britain, 1750-1900 . Palgrave Macmillan, October 11, 2002, ISBN 978-0-333-99307-1 , p. 67, (accessed April 12, 2012).
  8. ^ Hannah Kilham: Writings on Education in West Africa . Cambridge University Press, October 21, 2010, ISBN 978-1-108-01914-9, (Retrieved April 12, 2012).
personal data
SURNAME Kilham, Hannah
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spurr, Hannah; ハ ナ ・ キ ラ ム (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English missionary, linguist in Sierra Leone and activist
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH Sheffield , England
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1832