Mary Slessor: Applied To The Period Of 19th Century British Imperialism

Charles Dickins once said, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. When he originally wrote this famous line, he was referring to the French Revolution, but it could be appropriately applied to the period of Nineteenth Century British Imperialism. For imperialist nations such as Britain, there was enormous economic benefit to their massive empire and imperialist propaganda made it seem as those imperialists nations were helping and ‘civilizing’ those they gained dominion over. There was a focus on expansion of empire to assist with the fact other nations such as France, Germany, Japan and United States were starting to catch up industrially. At the same time, in Britain, there was concept that the identity of women should be

For the early years of her life, Mary lived with her family in Aberdeen, with her father working as a shoemaker. By 1859, the Slessor family was forced to move to Dundee Scotland, because Robert Slessor’s alcoholism caused him to lose his job there (Robertson 5). Upon moving to Dundee, Mary’s mother became a worker at a linen factory and Mary became half time worker at a mill to help support her family. Mrs. Slessor was a deeply religious woman and had been very involved in a local mission that helped the poor (Obinna 280). From a young age, Slessor was interested in missionary work, as David Livingstone, who was a Scottish Christian medical missionary and explorer who had worked in Africa, inspired her interest in becoming a missionary as well. In 1874, word spread globally that David Livingstone had died, which caused an increase in interest for missionary service. This event combined with the death of her brother John, was what finally motivated her to offer up her service to the Foreign Mission Board of the United Presbyterian Church Missionary Board in 1875 (Obinna 281). On the eleventh of September 11th, 1876, Slessor arrived in Calabar, where she would spend over thirty-eight years of service there. Early on in her time there she met King Eyo Honesty the VII, who came to her for advice on how to interact with white men and through that connection, she was able build trust with the native and due to that was able to secure an agreement to cease the practice of twin infanticide (Obinna 282). In 1888, Slessor moved from Duke Town to Akpap Okoyong, where, a year later, she became a vice-consul, and was given the authority to preside over the local court (Obinna 283), which she was arguably the first female magistrate in the British Empire. She received criticism for this from some of her fellow missionaries due to the fact, that working in an official and/semiofficial position