Sarah E. Gorham (1832–1894) was the first woman to be sent out as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

from the

African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal ...

.Lindley, Susan Hill, Eleanor J. Stebner, eds. ''The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History'', p. 91. Her life is not documented until 1880, when she visited family members who had moved to Liberia, presumably via the

American Colonization Society The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America until 1837, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the migration of freebor ...

. While there, she became interested in the people of the area and the programs of the missionaries. She has been described as a "missionary, church leaders, social worker". After this visit, she returned to the United States and was involved at the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1888, at the age of 56, she went to the Magbelle mission in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

(about 75 miles from

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and po ...

), as the AME's first woman foreign missionary. At Magbele she established the Sarah Gorham Mission School, which gave both religious and industrial training. In July 1894 she was bedridden with

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

and died the next month. She was buried in the Kissy Road Cemetery in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Notes

*Anderson, Gerald H. 1998. ''Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions''. W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Web access
*Berry, Lewellyn L. 1942. ''A Century of Missions of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1840-1940.'' New York. *Dandridge, Octavia. 1987. ''A History of the Women's Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.'' *Campbell, James T. 1995. ''Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa''. Oxford University Press. *Keller, Rosemary Skinner, Louise L. Queen, and Hilah F. Thomas, eds. 1982. ''Women in New Worlds''. Nashville: Abingdon. 1832 births 1894 deaths Women Christian missionaries Methodist missionaries in Sierra Leone African-American missionaries American Methodist missionaries American expatriates in Sierra Leone 19th-century African-American women {{Christianity-bio-stub

Notes

Further reading