Harriette Estelle Harris Presley (1862 – June 1885) was an American missionary. With her husband, a Baptist minister, she was a missionary in Liberia in the 1880s.
Harriette Estelle Harris Presley | |
|---|---|
 Harriette Estelle Harris Presley, from a posthumous publication | |
| Born | 1862 Buckingham County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | June 1885 (aged 22 or 23) Liberia |
| Other names | Hattie Harris Presley |
| Occupation | American Baptist missionary in Africa |
Early life and education
editHattie Harris was born in Buckingham County, Virginia, and raised by an aunt, Emily Mills, in Richmond, Virginia. She was a member of First African Baptist Church in Richmond.[1] She attended classes at the Richmond Theological Institute, one of the few women admitted to the school before a companion women's school was established.[2]
Mission work and death
editHattie Harris married a pastor, J. H. Presley, in the spring of 1883. The Presleys sailed for Liberia as Baptist missionaries in December 1883,[3] arriving in 1884.[4] They traveled with fellow missionaries W. W. Colley and his wife, Georgie Carter Colley.[5]
Presley died at the Bendoo Mission in Grand Cape Mount in 1885, shortly after her newborn daughter's death, while nursing her husband, who was ill for months with a dangerous fever.[6] Her death was described in church literature as a sacrifice or martyrdom for the church's evangelical work in Africa.[7]
Her husband returned to the United States soon after her death, when his own health allowed.[8] He remarried, and continued to do church work, but he never fully recovered his physical or mental health.[5][6]
References
edit- ^ Matthews, Dr Raymond Pierre Hylton, Dr Rodney D. Waller, and Dr Kimberly A. (2023). Richmond's First African Baptist Church. Arcadia Publishing. p. 113. ISBN 978-1-4671-0872-0.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Ingram, E. Renée; White (Sr.), Charles W. (2005). Buckingham County. Arcadia Publishing. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-7385-1842-8.
- ^ "Farewell Missionary Meeting". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1883-11-21. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-02-24 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ DeLombard, Jeannine (1991). "Sisters, Servants, or Saviors? National Baptist Women Missionaries in Liberia in the 1920s". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 24 (2): 323–347. doi:10.2307/219793. ISSN 0361-7882. JSTOR 219793.
- ^ a b Bennett, Jessi (2021-02-17). "Colley's Calling: Reconstruction-Era Richmonders in Africa". The Uncommonwealth. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
- ^ a b "Missionary Convention". Public Ledger. 1886-09-25. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-02-24 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Hughes, Brandi (2017). "Reconstruction's Revival: The Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention and the Roots of Black Populist Diplomacy". In Heywood, Linda (ed.). African Americans in U.S. Foreign Policy: From the Era of Frederick Douglass to the Age of Obama. Vol. 1. University of Illinois Press. doi:10.5406/illinois/9780252038877.003.0005.
- ^ "Among the Heathen; the Experiences of a Missionary in Africa". The Savannah Morning News. 1888-11-13. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-02-24 – via Newspapers.com.
External links
edit- "Beyond Maggie Walker: 6 Other Richmond Women from the Turn of the Century" Virginia Union University Archives & Special Collections (February 12, 2018), a blog post including Presley as one of Richmond's notable women