Serving through trials...... Celebrating Black HIStory '24

“Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”(Isaiah 41:10)

Betsey Stockton’s journey to the mission field was an unlikely one. Born as a domestic slave in the household of the President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), Stockton gained her freedom as a teenager and attended night classes at the college. It was there on that college campus that she heard the Gospel and gave her life to Christ.

Stockton soon felt called to share her newfound faith as a missionary to the islands of Hawaii. She scrimped and saved to raise the finances needed, and in 1822 joined a team of 11 missionaries, herself the only African American, on the perilous journey by sea.

In Hawaii, Stockton helped establish schools and taught history, English, Latin, and algebra, all while learning the local language. She knew that education was the key to not only a better life for the people she encountered but also the key to understanding and receiving the truths of the Bible. Stockton would later go on to establish schools for underprivileged children in Philadelphia and Canada.

Betsey Stockton, the first unmarried female American missionary, is now considered among the most noted educators in U.S. history. In their book, Profiles of African American Missionaries , Robert Stevens and Brian Johnson said of Stockton, “Betsey may have been born into slavery but she emerged as a religious and academic pioneer.