Mary Slessor-Everybody's Mother

How did a petite redhead from the slums of Dundee become a role model for a hundred years? How did she come to wield influence in the land known to her compatriots as ""the white man's grave""? Why are there statues of her holding twins in Nigeria? How did she develop her missionary fervor combined with down-to-earth common sense? How did she overcome difficult situations throughout her life in ways that set her apart from many Victorians?

Her ""eccentricities"" are often cited: She climbed trees, marched barefoot and bareheaded through the forest, declined to filter her water, and shed her Victorian petticoats. On the other hand, because of her understanding of and rapport with the Africans among whom she lived, the British government appointed her their first woman magistrate anywhere in the world and later awarded her the highest honor then bestowed on a woman commoner.

Mary Slessor--Everybody's Mother examines the era and influence of this extraordinary woman, who spent thirty-eight years serving as a Presbyterian missionary in Calabar. The work answers questions about the public Mary Slessor. It also looks at her private life. The author makes use of materials not found elsewhere, including Slessor's own writings and those of others of her era, reminiscences of her adopted Nigerian son, and assessments from contemporary sources.

Slessor's audacity in remote areas of Nigeria contrasted with her timidity in public meetings in Scotland. She shunned the limelight and wondered why anyone would want to know about her. Her fame continues, especially in Nigeria and Scotland. She was certain God called her to serve in Calabar, the home she claimed as her own, where she became eka kpukpru owo--everybody's mother.


Mary Slessor is one of the few missionaries to have become a legend in their lifetime and leave an impression on the lives of a generation after it. . . . This is undoubtedly the best biography of Slessor so far produced. . . . It presents a woman who, without pretensions to gentility or to much education, moved the bounds, not only of what was acceptable for women, but of what was conceivable.
--Andrew F. Walls
Founding Director, Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World, University of Edinburgh, Scotland; formerly Guest Professor of Ecumenics and Mission at Princeton Theological Seminary and Visiting Professor of World Christianity at Harvard and Yale Universities.



Mary Slessor modeled a heart for the vulnerable, poor, sick, orphaned, and marginalized. Both she and indigenes were transformed by their encounter . . . This volume shows the importance of her legacy in spite of a close relationship with the colonial enterprise.
--Ogbu Kalu
Henry Winters Luce Professor of World Christianity and Mission, McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago



Mary Slessor would have been more famous than David Livingstone had she not been a woman. . . . This work fills the need for a good modern biography of a remarkable woman. It combines readability with high academic standard.
--Jock Stein
Editor, The Handsel Press; former minister of the church in Dundee where Mary Slessor was a member


Jeanette Hardage develops independent writing projects. Her work has appeared in Christianity Today, the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, the Journal of Medical Biography, and other publications. At Sea with God, written with her husband, Owen Hardage, is forthcoming.