Boston King was one of the first black men to be appointed into the Methodist connexion. His missions in Sierra Leone attracted the attention of the Superintendent Thomas Coke, who was interested in the ‘salvation’ of enslaved people. Coke took King to Kingswood School in 1794. Here, King studied the Bible and developed his literacy, to further his ambitions of preaching in West Africa. Ryan Hanley explores King’s journey to Kingswood and provides an insight into his life in the school.
Tag: Methodism
‘Fancy and useful’: Bazaars and middle class women in late Victorian Salisbury
Leisure was a substantial part of the life of a Victorian lady. Leisure pursuits took place mostly in the domestic sphere, although attendance at theatres, concerts and flower shows increasingly brought leisured ladies into the public. Another undertaking of these ladies which brought them into the public arena was voluntary philanthropic work. Jane Howells explores the Salisbury Bazaars, where middle class local women sold the products of their leisured labour as a means of charitable fundraising.
She might have, which is all that matters: History, drama and the case of Mary Hamilton, 1746
Mary Hamilton was perhaps the most notorious cross-dresser or ‘female-husband’ of her day. She lived in Somerset, among other places, and was the subject of scandal across the country for her habitual crime of marrying other women. Her story was preserved in the pages of an anonymous pamphlet by a famous contemporary novelist and dramatist. Through the story of Mary Hamilton, Sheila Hannon considers the rights and responsibilities of modern-day novelists and dramatists in their use of historical evidence. To what extent can writers take liberties with historical record in the name of ‘dramatic license’, when much of the ‘historical evidence’ that remains is itself fiction?