Mary Slessor Characteristics

Mary Slessor: Hero of All Ages Kieley C. Shull

Who is your hero? Why? Is it because of their strong character, the way they overcame challenging obstacles, because they always stand for the right things, or maybe it is their complete selflessness in all situations? Mary Slessor, a blue eyed and red haired missionary in Calabar, Africa (now day Nigeria), is a true hero, who possesses all these traits and much more. Mary Slessor has saved hundreds of neglected human beings, both physically and spiritually, whom very few others cared about. Mary Slessor was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1848, were she was the second child out of seven in a poor family with an alcoholic father who couldn't keep a job (Hickman 1). By elevan, Mary and her family had moved to the slums of Dundee, Scotland where all nine of them lived in a one roomed house (Benge 15). That same year, Mary started working ten hours a day in the harsh heat of a mill providing the primary source of income for her whole family (Hickman 1). At fourteen, she was working twelve hours a day. She was not well educated, but loved to read and after work, would attend mill school

Mary Slessor, a blue eyed and red haired missionary in Calabar, Africa is a true hero throughout all ages. She impacted all of Nigeria, and she still impacts people today. In her memory, she was placed on the ten pound note in Scotland, she has several schools, churches, roads, hospitals named after her in Nigeria, she also has statues of her holding twins, and the museum in Dundee displays stained glass windows depicting events from her life (The Legacy of Mary Slessor 6). “Mary Slessor had no husband but she was loved by God. She had no children, but she was “mother of all the peoples””, (Calhoun