Julia Sass

View of the New Burial Ground, Freetown by Julia Sass which appeared in The Memorials of John Bowen (1862)

Julia Emily Sass (died 20 October 1891), was a British missionary, active in Sierra Leone in the middle of the nineteenth century.

In 1849 she became the first principal of Annie Walsh Memorial School,[1] where she has a school house named after her. She was responsible for the setting up of this school, but was absent from Sierra Leone from 1853 to 1855 for health reasons.[2]: 177  Originally she was appointed superintendent of the Female Institution, Freetown under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society.[3] She started off with three pupils, a number which doubled after a few months. The curriculum consisted of housework, bible training and schoolroom teaching.[4] The school was set up to train the wives of missionaries and only accepted the daughters conceived in Christian wedlock. The school was consciously designed to replicate middle class attitudes in England.[5]

She was interested in horticulture and corresponded with Joseph Dalton Hooker of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.[6]

  1. ^ Strasser-King, Francetta. "The Annie Walsh". www.anniewalsh.org. Annie Walsh Old Girls Association. Archived from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  2. ^ A. B. C., Sibthorpe (1970). The History of Sierra Leone. London: Frank Cass.
  3. ^ "Church Missionary Society Archive". Adam Matthew Publications. Adam Matthew Digital Ltd. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  4. ^ Fyle, Magbaily C. (2006). Historical Dictionary of Sierra Leone. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press.
  5. ^ Leach, Fiona (2011). "African girls, nineteenth century missionary education and the patriarchal imperative". In Raftery, Deirdre (ed.). Gender Balance and Gender Bias in Education: International Perspectives. New York: Routledge.
  6. ^ "Letter from Julia E. Sass to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker; from Freetown, Sierra Leone; 9 May 1869; four page letter comprising two images; folio 465". JSTOR. ITHAKA. Retrieved 1 April 2017.