Hi Friends,
Hannah More is a name we cannot afford to forget. Her work as an abolitionist, a feminist, a poet, a playwright, a novelist, and reformer in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although invaluable, is largely forgotten. In Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More – Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist, Karen Swallow Prior provided a detailed account of More’s life and sought to rekindle an interest in the value of her work.
With the help of her sisters, More set up schools to educate both males and females in poor communities in England. The prevailing philosophy of the time was to educate the rich and keep the poor uneducated. This philosophy did not allow for social mobility and fostered a corrupt society, particularly in poor communities where the lack of an education resulted in poor character. Her work in this area liberated many poor people from a life of ignorance and led to the creation of a middle class.
I suppose I admire More the most for her acknowledgement of the value of the female mind. She saw education as a way out of the strict social confines that ruled the female sex. To “learn how to grow old gracefully is perhaps one of the rarest and most valuable arts which can be taught to woman . . . [it] is a most severe trial for those women to be called to lay down beauty who have nothing else to take up. It is for this sober season of life that education should lay up its rich resources.”
She was also a key player in the movement to abolish the slave trade in Great Britain. She insisted that, “It should be held as an eternal truth, that what is morally wrong can never be politically correct.” Although Prior chronicles More’s part in this issue, I highly recommend Eric Metaxas’ biography of William Wilberforce, Amazing Grace, for a more detailed account of the abolition movement.
As women today permeate every industry, the work of Hannah More should not go unacknowledged. I highly recommend this book to both men and women. Hannah More was a force to be reckoned with and the effects of her work in Great Britain can still be felt today.
Happy International Women’s Day!
Live, Love, Learn,
Candice & The Write Teacher(s)